The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple and Time have reached a deal, which stands as a vital turning point in the impasse between the iPad maker and publishers over digital subscriptions.
According to the report, the iPad editions of Sports Illustrated, Time and Fortune will support subscriber authentication starting Monday. People magazine began supporting free subscriber downloads last year, ahead of other titles from the publisher.
The deal has reportedly gone through in spite of an executive shakeup occurring at the company. In February, parent company Time Warner fired Time Inc. CEO Jack Griffin after just six months on the job, citing a clash of management styles as the reason.
During the search for a new CEO, which could take until at least late summer, a three-man committee of executives will lead the company in the interim, the Journal reported. Time Inc. may be in for rocky weather ahead, as analysts expect quarterly results from Time Warner on Wednesday to reveal flat revenue for the publisher.
According to the report, Time and other major publishers have not reached a deal for selling digital subscriptions to the iPad editions of their magazines. Publishers are reportedly hung up on Apple's insistence that the practice of forwarding subscriber information to publishers operate on an opt-in basis.
Maurice Edelson, general counsel for Time, told the Journal that the company's executives have held frequent meetings with Apple executives, including Eddy Cue, vice president of Internet services. The Time executives "say the latest deal to make iPad editions free for print subscribers is a sign the two sides are moving closer," according to the report.
Earlier this year, The New York Times reported that publishers such as Time Inc., Conde Nast and Hearst were frustrated with delays to Apple's then-forthcoming application subscription feature for the App Store. At the time, people close to the company's discussion said that Time had yet to strike a deal with Apple.
Apple sparked a controversy in February when it revealed that it would take a 30 percent share of income generated from in app subscriptions to an App Store app. In addition, publishers must match or better prices from subscriptions offered outside of the app and are not allowed to link to out-of-app purchases.
In response to the news, one subscription service called the terms "economically untenable," while one developer called Apple's new rules "a huge dick move." The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is in the preliminary stage of looking into the terms of Apple's App Store subscriptions.
However, not all publishers are dissatisfied with Apple's terms. Bloomberg announced a $2.99 monthly subscription for the Bloomberg BusinessWeek app in April, adding that the company was "pleased with Apple's terms."
"iPad is the most important place to be right now, and thatâs where weâre focused," said Bloomberg mobile head Oke Okaro.
24 Comments
Reason seems to have prevailed over this one. Perhaps this will become a trend?
AT LAST! THAT'S THE WAY TO GO!
FREE E-VERSIONS FOR ALL OUR PRINTED VERSIONS (BOOKS, ETC.)
If these morons don't get it in the print business they will soon, as all the world is stealing their products via book torrents and the like and while they could just offer an effing e-version (epub, pdf, whatever) with every printed book they insist in making everyone pay twice for a printed book and the ease of having an e copy as well.
Get it free to me as you should, and I ll be your printed books too cause I love a printed book, try to stiff me (cause that's what they are doing) by making me pay double and I ll steel your ass off. You wanna go the way of hollywood where everyone is stealing avis off torrents? Be my guests...
I recall the days when magazines like TIME and Newsweek were must-read publications, and important communicators of thought. But their political bias got the best of them, just like it did with major daily newspapers. Today, millions or readers have abandoned newspapers and weekly news magazines because of this bias, and now these publications are pretty much groveling for whatever crumbs they can vacuum up. Their misery is pretty much self-inflicted.
Sorry i cant understand what has been posted. Previously Apple didn't allow Free E-Print on i Devices that has subscription on paper version. And insist on customer paying another version.
Now they have argee to do so......
( Or Something like that )
So How do Apple make money from these Subscriptions? It is not as if Storage and CDN are free.
( Unless Apple force these Publication to be i Devices Exclusive, which would means Apple would get the sale or their devices in return )
And how much does it cost to get just the iPad edition?
I don't need anyone to cut down trees and make paper... and for you print on that paper and put it on a truck to my house.
If you remove all those steps... how on earth can you charge the same or MORE for a digital version of your magazine?
BTW... Amazon will sell me 56 print issues of Time magazine for $30... so the iPad-only version better be cheaper.