Barnes & Noble says it has generated more than 650,000 subscriptions and single copy sales of publications through the Nook Newsstand on the Nook Color.

Readers can get their digital hands on more than 120 publications via Nook Newsstand, including National Geographic, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and many others. Barnes & Noble said that since Christmas, people have ordered 150 percent more subscriptions than were sold during the course of the past 12 months.

"We are excited to offer a wide array of the top periodicals and have seen explosive growth in Nook Newsstand sales since the launch of the Nook Color," said Jonathan Shar, Barnes & Noble's vice president and general manager of digital newsstand, in a statement. "We've had overwhelmingly positive feedback from our content partners as well and will continue to build upon our vast collection of periodicals and incorporate even more interactivity."

Introduced in October, the Nook Color was Barnes & Noble's top-selling holiday gift, the company said.

That Nook Newsstand sales are "exceeding expectations" means Barnes & Noble is succeeding where Apple is faltering. When the iPad was launched nearly a year ago, it was lauded as a savior of print. But so far, magazine sales on the tablet have been lackluster, due in part to the absence of a subscription model . A lot of publications, like Wired or Men's Health saw promising iPad app launches followed by steep declines in sales.

Through Nook Newsstand, yearly subscriptions to monthly magazines are about $15. On the iPad, most magazines cost about $4.99 per issue. But as far as iPad subscriptions go, the consensus is that they'll be available, but no one knows when.

Amazon offers subscriptions to more than 150 magazines and newspapers on the Kindle as well.

The trend seems to be going toward digital reading. Barnes and Noble recently said that it sells more e-books than it does physical books on BN.com.