Conde Nast has announced that it will start selling subscriptions to its magazines on the iPad, starting with The New Yorker.
Starting Monday, readers can subscribe to The New Yorker on the iPad for $5.99 a month or $59.99 a year. A print subscription, which also includes access to the iPad edition, is $6.99 a month or $69.99 annually. Single issues are still priced at $4.99 a piece.
Rival publisher Hearst announced last week that it would offer iPad subscriptions to three of its magazines, Esquire, Popular Mechanics, and O, the Oprah Magazine, starting with the July issues. Although Hearst was the first to announce an iPad subscription plan, Conde Nast is the first publisher to actually start selling them in the App Store. Subscriptions to other Conde Nast publications, including GQ, Vanity Fair, Wired, Glamour, Golf Digest, Self, and Allure will be available in the coming weeks for $1.99 a month or $19.99 a year, the Wall Street Journal reports.
"We've been working closely with Apple for some time to be the first to deliver what consumers clearly want: easy access to premium packaged digital content via subscription," Conde Nast president Robert A. Sauerberger, Jr. said in a statement. "The iPad has created an incredible new way for readers to experience our award-winning magazines."
Apple announced its long-awaited subscription model in February, but publishers have been slow to sign up. Many said that the terms, which give Apple 30 percent of sales and allow the company to retain full control of subscribers' personal information, are unfair.
According to All Things D's Peter Kafka, Apple has budged slightly on some of the terms. He cites a "person familiar with the publisher" who said Apple made a few concessions. While Apple still controls most of subscribers' information, Conde Nast is permitted to get their names, email addresses, and ZIP codes. Publishers also now have two opportunities to get a reader's email, first on the opt-in screen and later on a page that asks for email addresses in order to access exclusive content.
The Journal notes that this leaves Time, Inc. as the last of the top three publishers still holding out. The company recently announced that iPad editions of Time, Sports Illustrated, and Fortune are now free on the iPad to print subscribers, but it has made no announcements about standalone iPad subscriptions.