Discussions are still moving given the interests at stake

Nothing official at this stage, but the channels are open between New York and Cupertino, Apple headquarters. Issue of the negotiations which are interested such major American Publishers Condé Nast, Hearst and News Corp.: the creation of a digital kiosk designed to facilitate access to the applications on the iPad, on the model of iBooks for the book shelf or iTunes for music online. In view of the existence of several competing projects (Next Issue Media, Press Engine...), it is not certain that the project will result in the short term. But, according to Bloomberg, it could be operational within two months. After a period of euphoria associated with the arrival of the iPad, the subject is crucial for editors who find themselves confronted with the disparate systems of payment difficulties.

"The interest of the system would be to offer the iPad user a monthly individual subscription formula, renewed automatically, on the model of the cable in the United States", says a New York publisher who follows closely the negotiations. On the model of the iBook Store, the project of "iNewsstand" or "iMagazine" (essentially focused on magazines in the first place) would allow publishers to put in place a centralized management of subscriptions, avoiding the user to use interfaces for each of the "applications". Discussions are still moving, given the interests at stake. A point of friction is the level of remuneration of Apple, which claims a 30 commission on revenues, comparable to the level seen in the field of games or music. In addition, differences remain on the sharing of business data.

Aggregate applications

"The switch to the subscription is already a significant step, because it was not really in the culture of Apple so far," insists one of the parties concerned. However, in view of the difficulties related to the sharing of data on the management of subscribers, it does not see emerge in the short term a true single digital kiosk, separated from the App Store. Apple, the objective is to aggregate the launched applications in a manner by editors on different platforms. If the iPad today gives access to 200,000 applications through the App Store, only a dozen of truly "built" applications of magazines (offering more than pages in PDF format), type "Sports illustrated" or "Wired", have been up here a significant impact. But the rise of "worked" interactive applications require publishers to think about attractive subscription forms on the new shelves. The Hachette group so, for example, prepares the launch of applications on the iPad for its magazines lighthouses "She" and "Car and Driver" for the end of September.

According to a source cited by the Agency Bloomberg, Time Warner (editor of "Sports illustrated" and "people") would not support the initiative of Apple, because of its desire to retain the exclusive management of its subscribers. The American publisher push, on the other hand, the other members of the consortium Next Issue Media (Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corp.) to an alternative platform. But doubts have emerged on the sustainable future of Next Issue Media, after the recent decision of the Group Murdoch to pursue its own strategy of digital access with resumption of the Skiff from Hearst platform. In addition, the more flexible approach to Google, with its Android operating system, remains "joker of publishers", even if it does not have the strength of iTunes. It is not said that the "iNewsstand" way the day in the short term. But the success of the simplicity of the iTunes model should be think newspaper publishers.