Press Release:
Interactive magazine roster and OEM partners expand in advance of Q1 full-feature release
NEW YORK AND SILICON VALLEY – November 16, 2011 – Next Issue Media, the company formed by five leading U.S. publishers—Conde Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corp. and Time Inc.—today announced the addition of new tablet optimized titles from Hearst and Time Inc. to its preview edition release. The company also announced partnerships with several major consumer electronics partners to augment its distribution footprint on Android tablets in advance of the holidays. Through these actions, Next Issue continues to build toward its full-feature product release currently planned for Q1 of next year.
Magazines added to the Next Issue newsstand include: Car and Driver, Coastal Living, ELLE, Golf and Real Simple. Each of these top titles, along with current offerings such as: Better Homes & Gardens, Esquire, People, The New Yorker, TIME and Sports Illustrated, delivers a rich, interactive reading experience optimized for high resolution Android tablets. Many more optimized titles from Next Issue publishers are expected to be added to the newsstand before the end of the year.
In addition, through distribution partnerships with manufacturers Motorola, Samsung, Sony, and Toshiba, and service provider Verizon Wireless, the Next Issue app will be prominently showcased across multiple tablet offerings via placement on device home screens and featured app stores. The Next Issue app is also available through its website, www.nextissue.com.
“This announcement demonstrates our promise to deliver a content-rich, user-friendly digital reading experience for consumers across the Android platform. Given the ramp up of Android devices in Q4, Next Issue is perfectly positioned for easy discovery by new customers and to deliver the compelling, high-quality content they desire.” said Morgan Guenther, CEO of Next Issue Media. “More titles, more devices, more choice and lots more to come from Next Issue in Q1, so keep watching.”
“Consumers have a variety of choices when purchasing digital content, and Next Issue cuts through the confusion to prominently showcase our digital magazine offerings,” said Steve Sachs, Time Inc. Executive Vice President, Consumer Marketing and Sales. “Next Issue is a valuable partner as we introduce more digital titles through the end of this year.”
About Next Issue Media
Next Issue Media, the company behind Next Issue, is a joint venture formed by five leading U.S.-based publishers – Conde Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corp., and Time Inc. The company was formed to develop, market and deliver interactive digital editions of the world’s most popular magazines and newspapers optimized for the digital device of your choice. You can find more information on Next Issue at www.nextissue.com.
Is there some reason you haven’t released your app to Android Marketplace yet? Can’t you write one app that works on all the Android tablets? Why does it take so long to support each device? Have you tried to submit your application to the Android Marketplace? I’m wondering if maybe you did and it got rejected for some reason, like maybe it violated some condition that Google has. Or possibly there is some security issue with that app? If you really want people to run it it needs to be in the Android Marketplace. Most of us users aren’t willing to turn off security on our device to install an app. And there’s another less knowledgeable class of users that don’t even know how to turn off security no matter how many instructions you give to them. Another question I have for you here is one of branding. The app is branded Next Issue right now from what I can gather. That’s not exactly what I would call a household name that anyone would recognize. Why not brand your app with the brands the people know here, like the names of the magazines? If you don’t do that then a lot of people are going to have a hard time making the connection between the Next Issue brand and all of the various assorted magazine brands. Now thinking a little further here, it seems to me that the problem is that the big brand magazines might already have apps with their names. You guys are competing against those apps in some cases. That’s quite an interesting situation you have there indeed.
Hi Michael. I work at Next Issue and can hopefully address your question a bit. Glad you’ve been looking around for our app in Android Marketplace. We are working on a lot of great stuff around here, this included. In the meantime, folks can download the preview edition of the app from our site, although the process may not be as intuitive.
Appreciate your interest in what we’re doing. Lots of new stuff coming early next year. Stay tuned.