Time, Inc. Tells Apple iPad: ‘Screw You!’

SI - Just one of Time, Inc.'s stable of mags

Did you realize that Time magazine, Inc. is the world’s largest mag company? I didn’t. But it does mean that they have some horsepower to go to war with Apple over iPad access mis-management (outrageous fees, controlling subscribers info, etc) for their own products as well as on behalf of  other magazine publishers.

Apple iPad might soon find their only mag & newspaper client is Rupert Murdoch’s new Daily…and readers can only read that on the iPad to the exclusion of all other eReaders…and there are MANY with more to come…what a trashing of customer base!

Please read my other posts RE Apple iPad access and apps on Writers Welcome Blog for more background on this sticky publishing intrigue. I have conveniently listed them consecutively here.

Jeff Bercovici of Forbes.com has the latest on Time magazine’s blow-by-blow with Apple:

Time, Inc. Strikes Blows for Publishers in Standoff with Apple

For Time Inc., the world’s biggest magazine company, the quickest way to get it titles onto iPad screens may be getting them onto other tablets first.

While other publishers wrangle with Apple over the ins and outs of subscription sales in the iTunes store — How big a cut does Apple get to keep? Who gets control of the consumer’s information? Should the customer get to choose? — Time Inc. is moving ahead diagonally, making deals with the makers of other devices in hopes of gaining leverage in its negotiations with Apple.

Today, Sports Illustrated introduced an “All Access” subscription plan that will allow readers to pay one price to read the magazine in print, online, on Samsung Galaxy tablets and on Android phones. Although newspapers including The Wall Street Journal already offer such an option, SI is the first magazine to do so, according to managing editor Terry McDonell. The news comes just in time for the magazine’s swimsuit issue, its biggest annual seller.

“This is an important and fulfilling day because it marks the end of a very long march for us,” he said at a press conference. A combined print/digital subscription will cost $48 for one year or $4.99 a month; existing print subscribers will have free digital access for the remainder of their terms.

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