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Next Issue Media continues to build momentum behind its digital magazine subscription service. As it adds titles and grows its subscriber base, it?s also readying important enhancements to its newsstand app, including social sharing and personalization.
Facebook integration will be available in the first quarter, CEO Morgan Guenther said in a phone interview. Lack of social sharing is a key gap in the current app. Next Issue also plans to add personalization tools such as a recommendation engine. The ability to suggest content based on subscribers? browsing habits is a big step toward improving discovery across titles in the catalog.
Also on tap for the first quarter is a Windows 8 version of the app. Guenther said he?s intrigued by Windows 8 not so much as a tablet OS but as a way to extend Next Issue?s service onto desktop computers. ?Blink and there will be 50 million Windows 8 desktops,? he said. ?It will be an interesting launch for us.?
Next Issue?s ?all you can eat? subscription model is gaining traction in the tablet publishing space, which could be 
poised to take off in the year ahead.
Guenther said the number of subscribers to Next Issue?s on-demand basic or premium plans is now ?about double? the 70,000 the company disclosed in October, with the majority using the iPad version that launched.
Next Issue?s Netflix-like magazine service, which debuted in April on Android and in July on iPad, originally included publications exclusively from the company?s five backers: Cond? Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corp. and Time Inc. Last month, the company added the first third-party titles, including ESPN, Fast Company, Men?s Fitness and Men?s Journal, bringing the total iPad catalog to 90 titles. The Android catalog has fewer titles presently; Guenther said he expects to have ?parity? across both platforms early next year now that the Android environment has stabilized somewhat.
November?s magazine additions focused on men?s and business titles, as the company seeks more balance in the catalog, which was heavily weighted at launch toward women?s titles. Next Issue will continue to be selective about the titles it adds, focusing on mass-market, high-circulation titles.
?We?re getting a lot of inbound interest, but right now we?re focused on how to make the catalog most attractive in both numbers and categories,? said Guenther.
Future additions to the catalog will also be influenced by the steady stream of data the company is collecting from its first wave of subscribers.
?We?re awash in data,? Guenther said. ?It?s a learning curve for us.? A long list of metrics, including subscriber data and consumption information such as dwell time and navigation paths across titles, will inform category selection as well as new features for the app, he said.
Guenther doesn?t foresee any major near-term changes to the existing two-tiered pricing model: $9.99 a month for basic (featuring monthly titles) and $14.99 for unlimited (which adds weeklies to the mix).
?For the early days, we believe simpler [pricing] is better,? he said. Translation: lower-priced bundles based on categories such as women?s lifestyle or business are unlikely, for now.
Source: http://www.emediavitals.com/content/next-issue-fills-gaps-its-digital-subscription-service
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