While the iPad launch could be considered a success, it was not without its hitches. Along with reported Wi-Fi problems, there’s also been pushback from consumers of various eMagazines, who consider the price tags around the newsstand price to be unreasonably high.
“Come on, guys, help us help you,” read a customer comment on Apple’s iTunes store for Popular Science’s iPad app, which is priced at $4.99 per issue [thanks Ad Week]. “This is the future of magazines. This is how I want all of my magazines. But I will not pay $5 per issue.”
“Customers are used to cheaper physical subscriptions for magazines, typically a fraction of the newsstand price. In response to the $4.99 price for issues of Time on the iPad, a customer wrote, “Not to put too fine a point on it, but they’re passing the savings on [from] distribution and raw materials to themselves. I can get 56 issues of the paper version for $20. How am I supposed to feel about this?”
Sara Ohrvall, director of research and development at Bonnier Corp., publisher of Popular Science, thought the app got a good response, but she noted that they’re working on improvements. “We’ll prove to them it s worth the $4.99 over time,” said Ohrvall. “That’s our strategy, at least. It has to be something that really makes use of all the beauty the iPad has to offer. We have to do a lot of work to re-create the magazine for the iPad.”
As for Time, they issued this statement: “We are offering a compelling, robust and beautiful product. The production of this high quality, fact-checked reporting takes resources. We believe there is a real value to this product and as consumers experience it, they will agree. We are currently only offering single copy sales, just like at your local newsstand and, the price is the same as the physical newsstand. We will soon be offering subscriptions both digital subscriptions and print/digital bundled subscriptions. We anticipate these subscriptions will be discounted off the newsstand price.”
