Vijay Radhakrishnan, president and co-founder of Magzter, told Publishers Daily this partnership is a “dream come true” for the company.
He said 40% of Magzter’s users are from the U.S. and many of them said they wanted access to Time Inc.’s brands.
“This is going to be a great addition for our existing readers,” Radhakrishnan said.
Digital single copies and subscriptions of Coastal Living, Cooking Light, Entertainment Weekly, Essence, Food & Wine, Fortune, Golf, Health, InStyle, Money, People, People en Español, Stylewatch, Real Simple, Southern Living, Sports Illustrated, Sunset, This Old House, Time and Travel + Leisure will be available for purchase on the Magzter app starting today.
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Magzter is known for its Netflix-like, “All You Can Read” subscription service called Magzter Gold, which allows users to binge-read as many articles as they want.
However, Time Inc.’s content on the Magzter app will not be part of Magzter Gold, but instead will be available to buy as singles copies or as part of a subscription.
Radhakrishnan said publishers want to “experiment on platforms before they commit” to an all-you-can-read service.
But Radhakrishnan said he is “pretty confident” that Time Inc.’s content will soon be part of Magzter Gold.
Scott McAllister, SVP of digital marketing and revenue at Time Inc., stated: “We are always looking for new distribution platforms for our premium content. By partnering with Magzter, we’re extending the reach of our brands to one of the most diverse audiences in the digital magazine media space.”
Since it was founded in 2011, Magzter has secured strategic partnerships with publishers like Hearst, AMI, Newsweek and Condé Nast UK. Prior to this partnership, Magzter got Time Asia on board in November.
Radhakrishnan explained that partnering with Magzter has become easier after launching their new tool, called “MagFly,” which converts any format from publishers — like XML, HTML, PDF — to content that is readable on smart phones and tablets.
Magzter uses a revenue share model with publishers. Because it is PDF-based, the app cannot offer a native digital reading experience.
Looking ahead, Radhakrishnan said they are working on partnering with Condé Nast US, and he expects the announcement will be made in the coming week. He added that by end of 2016, he hopes to get all the publishers on Magzter on board with their Gold subscription service.
Girish Ramdas, CEO of Magzter, stated: “Media companies have begun to realize the advantages of our platform, and Magzter’s focus on content discoverability and its slick user interface allow for a highly streamlined end-user experience.”
Magzter has over 28 million digital consumers and more than 7,500 magazines from over 3,000 publishers.
This is such an amazing news. I always wanted Time Inc titles to be available on Magzter as Time Inc has some of my most favorite magazines. I am so glad that I can now enjoy reading them on my Magzter app!