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Apr 12, 2001
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Last week, Forbes writer Jeff Bercovici asked what was it that changed that prompted Hearst and Conde Nast to suddenly agree to Apple's terms for iPad magazine subscriptions. The answer turned out to be surprisingly simple. Publishers had previously argued that the lack of subscriber information from iPad subscriptions was even a bigger hurdle than the 30% revenue share. Instead of automatically sharing the data, Apple asks individual subscribers to opt in. As it turns out, up to 50% of users agree.
Initially, publishers were worried, reasonably enough, that users would overwhelmingly say no. But they don't. In fact, about 50 percent opt in.
Apple's Eddy Cue confirmed the figure according to Bercovici. The author credits the trust in the App Store as the reason for the high opt-in rate.

Article Link: 50% of iPad Magazine Subscribers Allow Apple to Pass Info to Publishers
 
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VanMac

macrumors 6502a
May 26, 2005
914
0
Rampaging Tokyo
Options are good

I think it's good being given the option. Certain products I like or trust, and don't mind providing my info for more communications.
 

ten-oak-druid

macrumors 68000
Jan 11, 2010
1,980
0
I view magazines as a waste of time and money. Only a few are exceptions. Arizona Highways for instance is nice because there are no ads; only content. And if you need to cancel your subscription for a while, it is not a pain to do so.

Most magazines however are just filler with ads. And at times their operations can appear shady when it comes to dropping service. It is best never to give a credit card to these people. Only use temporary credit card numbers generated on line so they cannot keep billing you if you want out.
 

Dr McKay

macrumors 68040
Aug 11, 2010
3,430
57
Kirkland
At least it tells you it wants to, and gives you the option to say "No".

Nothing sinister, it's being open and honest.
 

Starship77

macrumors regular
Aug 30, 2006
206
116
I think the "yes" rate is high just because people don't read the message. They probably just think it's another "Location" prompt and press "Agree" without even reading...

I would say "no" for sure... =P
 

Benjamins

macrumors 6502a
Jul 15, 2010
668
137
I think the "yes" rate is high just because people don't read the message. They probably just think it's another "Location" prompt and press "Agree" without even reading...

I would say "no" for sure... =P

would be pretty weird for a magazine to ask you for your location.

I usually answer "No" for most questions, even location prompt. Unless it'a a GPS app.
 

JPR

macrumors newbie
Jul 21, 2010
18
1
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_8 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8E401 Safari/6533.18.5)

Well, I bought a months scrip to the new yorker, and opted out. So far, I like it alot.
 

pancakedrawer

macrumors regular
Dec 13, 2010
190
6
Melbourne
The chances of someone hitting the yes or no button randomly without reading it is about 50% too.

Completely randomly. Yes. But not in this context. It's similar to when most people install a program and just click next, next, next, finish until it's installed. People don't read it, they just want to start using the app so say yes to everything.
 

asterizk

macrumors regular
Oct 24, 2003
116
64
Sarasota, Florida
The chances of someone hitting the yes or no button randomly without reading it is about 50% too.

Heh. Completely. I wonder if it would have made a difference if they had made the other button default.

Also as a longtime Mac Human Interface Guidelines guy I can't stand these dialogs. "Allow" and "Disallow" as button titles are just as bad as "Yes" and "No", that is, they give no indication as to what their action will be; you have to read all the text above them to find out. Unlike on the Mac however, I guess, there is a screen real estate concern on the iPhone/iPod touch...
 

koios

macrumors newbie
May 20, 2010
17
2
The chances of someone hitting the yes or no button randomly without reading it is about 50% too.

There's even a tendency to hit the "accept"-button, because it is featured (highlighted) more prominently as the default choice.

So, let's say about 70% respond without reading the text and the chance to hit "accept" for them is also about 70% percent -> 49% acceptance

In addition there are the 30% who do read the text, with 3% of them beeing naive enough to push "accept" consciously -> about 1% acceptance

so, 49% + 1%, voila, there's your 50% (with a true acceptance rate of just 3%) -> That's what I call magical :D
 

Small White Car

macrumors G4
Aug 29, 2006
10,966
1,463
Washington DC
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8J2)

I find that number shocking, but ok. Whatever people like is up to them.

(I'd have guessed 20% would say yes.)
 

a.gomez

macrumors 6502a
Oct 10, 2008
924
726
think it had more to do with the fact that now they can give away the ipad version for free - They marketing it everywhere, no need to give that free clock radio - you get the ipad access

seeing how Apple is so big on keeping our info safe maybe they should make iAds "opt in" instead of making people go to a site and "opt out" :rolleyes:
 

kurzz

macrumors 6502
May 18, 2007
391
28
Yes, I click allow because I'd love to receive advertising and countless hard to unsubscribe emails from companies I've never heard of because they've sold my name, email and address. ;)

At least I get free paper ads in the mail that I can use for the pet cage.
 

holmesf

macrumors 6502a
Sep 30, 2001
528
25
Along with in-app purchase dialog boxes (which are often spuriously triggered), these are messages I just never want to see.

Messages with these types of consequences (dangers to privacy, unwanted junk mail) should never be so easy to accidentally hit.
 
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Michael Scrip

macrumors 604
Mar 4, 2011
7,922
12,470
NC
How much information are we talking about here?

When you subscribe to the paper magazine... the publishers know EVERYTHING about you!

And now, not only are they losing 30% to Apple... you don't think they should know anything about their subscribers either?

I dunno... I'm kinda on the side of the publishers on this one... :confused:
 

Satori

macrumors 6502a
Jun 22, 2006
761
6
London
I wonder how many of those that said yes, regret it now?

I always say 'no' to these types of requests and have still had a hard time getting my details removed from various mailing and calling lists!
 

PeterQVenkman

macrumors 68020
Mar 4, 2005
2,023
0
Just watched the last season of Deadwood, in which Hearst is a villain. If you say no to Hearst, he'll have the Pinkertons kill you.

Don't know if anyone will get that.
 

SockRolid

macrumors 68000
Jan 5, 2010
1,560
118
Almost Rock Solid
Publishers just might survive after all

Magazine publishers made most of their money by selling their subscribers' demographic data to ad agencies. Back in the day when people actually subscribed to physical magazines. If enough suckers, er, subscribers say "yes" then maybe there's hope for old school publishers after all.
 
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