In the fall of 2011, Apple decided to expand upon the iTunes/App Store’s firmly established ecosystem by launching Newsstand, Apple’s marketplace for digital media subscriptions. Many believe that Newsstand has the potential to do for digital magazines what iTunes did for music. Newsstand includes a built-in store for purchasing all forms of digital content on a “one off” or subscription basis. It provides easy access to these apps, and automatically updates subscriptions when new issues are released.
There are approximately 7,000 Newsstand apps versus 850,000 in the App Store, and the vast majority of these Newsstand apps are digital replicas of print editions of existing publications.
Our question based on these figures is simple. If the App Store has grown to 850,000 apps in as little as 5 years how long will it be before Newsstand is overrun with digital publications. How will you get noticed among the 7,000 titles currently in the Newsstand? How can your publication become a title 500 million Apple iOS users can enjoy?
Digital magazines are not a quick cure for the magazine industry.