Target’s Digital Push: Magazines Everywhere?
Even as Wal-Mart shrinks the aisle space it devotes to magazines, rival Target is picking up that slack in the digital sphere. In partnership with Zinio, the retailer is launching a digital magazine newsstand this week with a selection of single issues and subscriptions for purchase. The rollout is timed to accompany the appearance of e-readers at Target stores.
The co-branded digital newsstand will showcase titles like Elle, Parenting Early Years, Popular Science and Woman’s Day. Many of the subscriptions are at slight discounts from the going rate. Back issues of some titles are offered for as low as 94 cents.
Digital magazines have raised their profile in recent months as many publishers start looking for alternative, cheaper modes of distribution. The manufacturers of the digital magazine platforms would like to see their formats associated with the emerging market for portable e-readers, but it is still unclear how the two fit together in these models. The current e-ink technology driving the Amazon Kindle, Sony reader and its upcoming rivals simply are not capable of showing magazines off very well. And while the Amazon Kindle allows for direct subscription and wireless downloads of more than a score of titles, these magazines are formatted specifically for that device.
Digital magazine providers have partnerships with device manufacturers, and when we spoke to Zinio chief marketing officer Jeanniey Mullen last month about the models, she said the company has a buy-once, read-everywhere idea in mind. “Zinio’s comprehensive device vision is the belief that as the consumer you should only need to buy the digital version of the pub one time and have the freedom to access it on every device on an ongoing basis,” she says. “We have built the technological integrations for all platforms, from cell phones to e-reader to TV set.” Zinio’s intention is to let the user log into their Zinio account from any device and get their subscribed content in formats that adapt to the screen.
Call it the counterpart to the emerging “TV everywhere” model in which cable and premium network subscribers have online and mobile access to all of their TV programming. It remains to be seen whether a “magazines everywhere” model has widespread appeal.
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