Apple Finally Allows Subscriptions to iPad Magazines

Apple has finally allowed magazine publishers to offer iPad magazines to subscribers free of charge.

Last month it was reported that Time Inc. was set to launch a subscription version of its Sports Illustrated iPad app, where consumers would download the magazines via Apple’s iTunes, but would pay Time Inc. directly. But Apple rejected the app at the last minute, forcing the Time Warner (TWX) unit to sell single copies, using iTunes as a middleman

This has now changed with this week's new People iPad app, which is, for the first time, free to People subscribers, according to CNN Fortune. It's expected that all Time Inc.'s magazines (Time, Sports Illustrated, Fortune) will adopt the new feature within the next month.


It's not clear what took so long. Publishers who were encouraged to build iPad apps by Steve Jobs himself say were ready from the start to make them free to subscribers. Until now, however, Apple would neither give them the tools they needed, nor explain what was holding them up. The publishers still can't sell subscriptions through the App Store, which is how they would prefer to do it.

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