Wall Street Journal
Conde Nast launched The New Yorker iPad app this morning, with a $4.99 cover price but without a subscription option for either digital or print readers.
Russell Adams writes that the app “highlights the mounting pressure on Apple” to provide a digital subscription service for newspaper and magazine publishers:
“… A key sticking point is Apple’s apparent reluctance to give publishers full access to names and other personal information about people who purchase their apps.”
An option being adopted by some publishers is to simply avoid Apple’s iTunes payment system and tie digital apps directly to print circulation databases. This is the approach undertaken by the Wall Street Journal itself for its iPad app. Under that scenario, the mobile app is typically provided as a free download; to gain full access to the content, the reader is required to create an account directly with the individual publisher.
