Time Inc. service offers cool idea, uninspired selection.
Time Inc. launched its much anticipated magazine meta-subscription service Maghound today. The idea is that for a small fee, starting at three titles for $4.95 a month, you can swap out magazine subscriptions every month. It's like Netflix for magazine subscriptions, but unlike Netflix the selection is awful. We like the idea a lot though and we hope it will improve.
PaidContent explains the gaps as follows:
At launch, it has 240 titles, about 40 less that what Time Inc said at a trade show in June, Folio notes. In addition to all Time inc titles, of course, it has titles from Conde Nast (not all), Rodale, and others. Notably missing is any magazine from the Hearst stable, including Esquire, Cosmopolitan and others. Some of the other notables I checked on which are missing are The Atlantic, Business Week, Wired, The Economist, Reader's Digest, and National Geographic .
There's a whole world of independent magazines beyond the big titles as well, see directory sites like NewPages.com and Mygazines. We'd love to see Maghound include titles from those directories. Is it in Time's interest to do so? Probably not.
We had high hopes for another magazine experiment called Brijit, but that innovative service went belly up in May and is no longer even online.
We hope print periodicals aren't dead, because we really like reading them. If this is the best the industry can do, though, then there's probably not much hope.
We like what Maghound is trying to do, and Time's distribution largess might help it work, but the service at launch isn't interesting enough to leave us anything but dissapointed.
Comments
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Maghound is an excellent example of fresh thinking. Instead of merely watching (and wailing) about a consumer shift in behavior, this Netflix-like magazine subscription service is a breath of fresh air. Predicting a trend, noticing a trend is actually on the horizon, shifting in consumer behavior - these are significant opportunities for those savvy enough to make use of the data
Posted by: Cash 5 | September 16, 2008 11:32 AM
That sounds like a great idea because there are a lot of magazines I would like to read but it would be too expensive to get them all. If I could read a magazine in 1-2 days and send it back for something else I would definitely sign up for the service.
Craig
www.budgetpulse.com
Posted by: Craig | September 16, 2008 2:05 PM
I don't know but magazines have not made the transition to the web. This seems like old media just not getting that. Blogs are personal newspapers, but what will the personal magazine look like on the web?
Posted by: Humby Valdes | September 16, 2008 3:26 PM
Nice concept. I wonder if it has:
* back catalogue (i'd pay month to rotate 3/5/etc back issues)
* any green features
- online versions of magazines
- etc
Posted by: David Stone | September 16, 2008 6:43 PM
hmm. kinda cool. reminds me i need to renew my sub. to Time.
Posted by: commercial real estate loans | September 17, 2008 2:46 AM
This totally sounds like it's up my alley, so after reading your post, I checked out the service. But I won't be using it. I think the biggest problem is one you DON'T mention. Certain "premium" magazines cost extra per month on top of your normal subscription. People, for example, will cost an extra $6.75 per month - more than the basic subscription price for three Maghound titles.
Posted by: Sarah | September 17, 2008 9:40 AM
The reason you're paying more for People is because it's a weekly, as opposed to a monthly. You get 50+ issues per year instead of 12. People is also the queen of the supermarket magazines... it charges more, because it can.
Time has been working on Maghound for over a year. It will be interesting to see if they can pull this off.
There are plenty of magazines that have "made the transition" to the web, but it's a hard transition to make... people on the web don't want to pay for content. Advertisers like the feedback of tracking the web. Publishers get caught in the middle.
As a printer, I love magazines. As a reader, I am a user of both atoms (paper) and bits (web). Bits in the living room and office. Atoms in the bathroom, on the plane, bus, train... :)
Posted by: whisperer | September 19, 2008 6:05 PM