'The New Yorker' Subscriptions Go Live on iPad

[NebulaClash]

Yes, the right of first sale is what saves us from even more draconian rules.

I'm not sure we'll see meaningful reform of copyright laws by 2020. On one side of the issue is common sense. On the other side is money. Lobbyists do not work for common sense, they work for money. Congress does not listen to common sense from lobbyists, they listen to money.

I may be cynical, but I think the copyright laws will get worse, not better. Money tends to be like that.

Not sure I follow you here. First you go about how the copyright law control how we can share content. Than you call it stealing. Than you tell that the law permit it, so under certain exception it's not stealing, even if the publisher don't like it. So, what do you really know about it?

I did jump around a bit, I guess. Here's the abbreviated version:

a) Copyright law sets the rules of content.
b) The earlier poster described a scenario that could be described under current law as stealing, as absurd as that sounds to us.
c) Much to the displeasure of content providers, Congress carved out some exceptions to the law that allow us to share content under certain specific conditions. They would love to change these exceptions if they could. Those exceptions do not include "sharing" a subscription on more than an occasional borrowing basis.
d) I only know what I've read about the issue. It's fairly deep, but not expert level by any means. I am not a lawyer.

 

[fifthworld]

I may be cynical, but I think the copyright laws will get worse, not better. Money tends to be like that.

Agree.

 

[gloss]

Might as well as pay the $10 more for the print version so you can have a print version in hand or keep them for a few years or let your wife have the hardcopy while you read the iPad version. Magazines like the New Yorker aren't typically thrown out very quickly as folks like to hold on to them for awhile for various reference points.

I still think $60/year for a digital magazine is a lot of money especially compared to the $70/year print version. New Yorker is not going to have interactive articles like National Geographic or Discovery or Scientific American and those mags are $29/year for print (monthly instead of weekly of course is why the price is different).

Tell us again how they can justify charging that much to send a 3MB PDF file to my iPad?

Well, to be fair, the iPad version is much more than just a PDF file. (As it should be; it weighs in at 130MB per issue). It reflows automatically, has pretty excellent navigation, and little easter eggs like integrated audio files where published poems are read by their authors. It's every bit the magazine that the paper version is, and then some.

You're paying $60 a year ($5 a month; less than $1.50 an issue) for the content, or $70 for the same content in physical form, versus $5 per stand-alone issue.

The problem here is not the cost, it's that people have this weird idea that the content should cost them next to nothing. The New Yorker, in this model, gets about $5 a month per subscriber, and yet you talk as though that's still too expensive. Someone has to write it, and edit it, and design the file. Someone has to provide the bandwidth. This stuff costs money.

 

[Ambrose Chapel]

Yes, I am a print-only subscriber and was able to get access via the app this morning with my subscription # (on your mailing label) and my newyorker.com ID and password (if you don't have one, you can sign up for one instantly on the NYer website).

It appears to provide access to issues from 2011 for free at this point. The post above me says March 13 for a cutoff date, by mine go back to Jan 3, 2011.

Thanks. Annoyingly, I always peel off the mailing label when I get a new issue so I'll have to wait til Wednesday when this week's issue shows up.

I suppose if you want to go back into the archives you need to use the Digital Edition on their site...

 

[Glideslope]

The Gate Continues to Rise. Soon the flood will be upon us all.

The Assimilation Continues.

 

[Eric S.]

So, what are the other seven titles?

Oops, never mind, found them in another article: Wired, Golf Digest, Glamour, Vanity Fair, Self, Allure and GQ.

Other than the New Yorker, nothing that interests me.

 

[vbtwo31984]

Thanks. Annoyingly, I always peel off the mailing label when I get a new issue so I'll have to wait til Wednesday when this week's issue shows up.

I suppose if you want to go back into the archives you need to use the Digital Edition on their site...

You can enter your full name and mailing address instead of the account number and it will also work.

 

[gloss]

So, what are the other seven titles?

Oops, never mind, found them in another article: Wired, Golf Digest, Glamour, Vanity Fair, Self, Allure and GQ.

Other than the New Yorker, nothing that interests me.

Wired doesn't interest you? For shame!

 

[sux2beyou]

I love how 3 days ago a year subscription to the New Yorker was selling for $39.95 on amazon.com http://camelcamelcamel.com/The-New-Yorker-1-year-auto-renewal/product/B001U5SPJW and they had to raise the price so they can justify $59.99 for an iPad only subscription.

 

[cbronfman]

All issues from 2011 available to print subscribers

Are archives available for subscribers?

I have access to all the issues of the New Yorker from 2011. The ones from 2010 are available, but at a cost ($4.99). I'm happy with 2011. I think my print subscription runs through 2012 (it was much less costly to purchase 3 years at one point - I think it cost me $99.)

 

[Eric S.]

Wired doesn't interest you? For shame!

I read it when it first came out, but it seemed high on glitz and low on content. In fact a lot like the others in that list.

 

[Wilson Fisk]

Publishers do want to raise the price of their subscriptions in general. They were happy to give away subscriptions on the cheap, (i have been getting Wired for $10 a year for years now). They raised their circulation and were able to charge the advertisers more. That model is going away, even though the circulation and readerships of many magazines are at all time highs, the advertisers want reduced prices or are pulling out of the magazines all together. The economic crash and rise of the web really affected the print advertising market. They are often moving ads to the web where it is much cheaper to advertise. That loss in revenue has to be made up somewhere. Also as they see it, it costs more to go see a movie than for a subscription to most monthly mags. They believe they have great content and should be charging a fair price for it.

In addition an iPad version of a magazine is not simply a paperless magazine. There is a complete redesign of each issue and additional content and all the bells and whistles that take teams of designers and people constantly checking to make sure links and web enhanced content are working.

I personally think if i am subscribing to a print magazine that i should get a digital version for free since i have already paid for the content i truly care about but i also understand that they will make up those costs and my subscription price will be going up. yeah i could find all similar content for free on the web but it will most likely overall be lesser quality. There's a reason the Yankees charge more for tickets than the Pirates.

 

[peletrane]

So I subscribed downloaded a few issues, which it says you can "archive"--where are these stored??? On the Mac in iTunes???

 

[NebulaClash]

OK, I subscribed.

It's a very nice format, very enjoyable reading experience and it's nice to have the content again. I used to be a print subscriber for several years, but let it lapse a couple of years ago as I grew tired of reading on paper. Problem solved.

 

[caspersoong]

This would be really popular if only it was available in countries such as those in Southeast Asia.

 

[CapeTownMac]

Disappointing for foreign subscribers

I've tried the app and it works reasonably well. I don't know if others have noticed this but the font is a bit fuzzy. Its like reading a poor quality pdf, legible but not on a par with print or with other mags or ebooks that I use (notably Zinio has a better resolution for their mags).

The biggest letdown is that you can't get a free subscription if you live outside the US and Canada. We already pay a very large premium of more than 100% to get airmail delivery (I live in South Africa) and we need the digital edition even more than the locals. New Yorker have said that they "hope" to give access in the future but I don't see why they can't give access to all subscribers, its the same technology and we all pay for our mags so we should be treated equally.

I guess we should be used to this. Although I have a Paypal account and a Gold Mastercard and Visa card I am not allowed to have an Itunes account to buy credit on the Itunes store simply by virture of my location. In this day and age its simply ludicrous that Apple refuses to sell to me.

 

[Apple addict]

downloaded the app and subscribed last night. Still evaluating.

I have not figured out how you increase the size of the font. That is a problem for me.

Gary

 

[steadysignal]

But the New Yorker is different, densely-packed week after week. The thinning of the print herd is already well underway, but I don't see the New Yorker sweating much.

lets hope so. as costs go down, relics like the NYer will need to compete via cost. $60 is still high for the number of mags you get in the sub...at least IMO.

 

[gloss]

lets hope so. as costs go down, relics like the NYer will need to compete via cost. $60 is still high for the number of mags you get in the sub...at least IMO.

$1.25 per issue is too expensive for a huge amount of unique, brilliantly-written weekly content?

 

[ghostlyorb]

Another publisher Apple has on board! sweet!

 

[BuzzMega]

Mostly there.

I've subscribed to the New Yorker for over a decade and I welcomed the in-iPad version. It's full of things you can't get in print, but they still have a ways to go.

For instance, there's a section of the magazine called On The Town with a bunch of small, interesting ads in it. Every ad spells out its website. None of them are interactive. And you can't zoom into any page to blow up the images or text.

Eventually, they'll embed videos, have rollover images and so on, but not yet.

 

[cbronfman]

Archives going back to 1925

Are archives available for subscribers?

I just got an email from the New Yorker: "your New Yorker account status has been updated. We have upgraded your subscription to include The New Yorker tablet edition at no additional cost to you. Each week, right at your fingertips, you'll receive The New Yorker's distinctive coverage of arts and culture, business and politics, and science and technology as well as fiction, reviews, and the best cartoons! Your subscription also includes the complete archive on the Web with instant access to EVERY New Yorker issue dating back to 1925."

Very nice.

 

[riverfreak]

So I subscribed downloaded a few issues, which it says you can "archive"--where are these stored??? On the Mac in iTunes???

I'd like to know the same. And what happens to your stack of downloaded issues when you upgrade to a new iPad?

Other missing features:
*need some way of dog-earing/bookmarking things.
*option to add notes or to email a link
*search!

 

[Narial Taster]

Here's some good news for those of you who still haven't subscribed to The New Yorker. The New Yorker website was still selling print subscriptions at the old price ($39.95/year or $69.95/two years) a day or two after the iPad subs went live and the prices got revised. I saved the links, managed to subscribe at the old price, and it looks like these links still work!

Subscription - http://goo.gl/Q19SP
Gift a subscription - http://goo.gl/6HV71

 

[Razeus]

Here's some good news for those of you who still haven't subscribed to The New Yorker. The New Yorker website was still selling print subscriptions at the old price ($39.95/year or $69.95/two years) a day or two after the iPad subs went live and the prices got revised. I saved the links, managed to subscribe at the old price, and it looks like these links still work!

Subscription - http://goo.gl/Q19SP
Gift a subscription - http://goo.gl/6HV71

Thanks for that link. I just subscribed for the $40. I really didn't want the print version, but oh well. They really raised the price on this. $70??? I guess when Apple feels the need it should take a 30% cut...