Time Cuts iPad Suscription Deal with Apple

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Photo by Mat Honan - http://flic.kr/p/7QLV1P
Photo by Mat Honan - http://flic.kr/p/7QLV1P

Could the usually inflexible Apple be showing some wiggle room on the troublesome issue of iPad-based magazine subscriptions? Time Inc. – which publishes Fortune, Time and Sports Illustrated – has worked out a deal to provide a free iPad app to its print subscribers. Until now, Apple has required both subscribers and non-subscribers to pay separately for the iPad version.

The deal follows a number of meetings between Time’s lawyers and Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of Internet services, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. The deal “is a sign the two sides are moving closer,” the Journal writes.


For some time, publishers have balked at Apple’s requirement of a 30 percent cut on sales and making forwarding of iPad subscriber info opt-in. Additionally, the requirement that iPad owners pay for individual issues ran contrary to the usual subscription price model used by many weekly and monthly publications. Although some – such as the New York Times and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., have agreed to Apple’s policy, others have chafed at the lack of subscription information exchanges. The agreement with Time, as one of the largest publishers, may mark an important turning-point in this tug-of-war.

[Wall Street Journal]

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