All Things Digital
Next Issue Media, a coalition of print publishers working on digital subscription models, tells Peter Kafka it will be open for business, on Android, in early 2011.
Kafka reports that the joint venture, which includes Conde Nast, Hearst, News Corp. and Time Inc., is working to build a digital newsstand that would give publishers more control over digital subscription sales. The initial rollout of the program, notably, will not include Apple’s iPad.
This is likely for the obvious reasons, Kafka writes — mostly political and not technical:
As I noted earlier, this type of effort is necessary to get consumers to truly adopt digital subscriptions. And what publishers really hope for is a compromise with Apple that will make this, or a similar newsstand, interoperable across all mobile and digital platforms.
