U.S. iPad owners can now subscribe to the iPad editions of all 20 of Time Inc.'s magazines through Apple's Newsstand, including InStyle, People, Sports Illustrated and Time, the company announced Thursday.
Time Inc. has been selling magazines on the iPad for almost as long as the two-year-old device has been on the market. Until now however, users were unable to subscribe to its magazines within the App Store. Instead, they had to subscribe to individual print editions through Time Inc. or a third-party vendor, and then authenticate those subscriptions through their respective apps. Some magazines, such as Sports Illustrated, deviated by offering bundled digital subscriptions on their websites, which permitted users to access content from a variety of connected devices.
Why didn't Time Inc. allow subscriptions to begin with? The company contested Apple's terms for the offering, which forbid the sharing of subscriber information with publishers. That information that is critical to Time Inc., which needs it to sell advertising packages.