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  • Conde Nast decision exemplifies why publishers need to rethink iPad magazines

    by 
    Michael Grothaus
    Michael Grothaus
    04.22.2011

    Today representatives from Conde Nast told AdAge that they are slowing the addition of any new Conde Nast magazines to the iPad. Why? According to AdAge, Conde Nast feels "conditions aren't quite right yet to deliver the ideal app editions at the kind of scale that advertisers want." In other words, sales aren't stellar. Sales won't get stellar until magazine publishers wake up and reduce the per-issue prices of their magazines by 60-80%. An issue of GQ on the iPad costs $4.99, but the same issue of GQ through a subscription is priced at little more than a buck. Everyone knows magazines don't make most of their money from selling issues to consumers; they make it from ad revenue, and that ad revenue is going to lack big time until more people start buying magazines on the iPad. That won't happen until magazine publishers lower their subscription prices.