Maggwire: The iTunes of Magazines

Last year we featured Mygazines, a website that let you read hundreds of digitized magazine articles for free. Although they scaled back their operation significantly, it seems Maggwire is now offering a similar service and plans to launch a subscription based premium service which will give Maggwire access to exclusive content. Co-founder and CEO Ryan Klenovich of Maggwire calls it the iTunes of magazines, explaining that:

“just as iTunes proved people will pay for reliable music downloads, people will pay for a personalized magazine experience that delivers reliable content,”

The subscription model will charge users a flat monthly fee per topic or channel, and has a learning algorithm that will suggest content based on their preferences and let them see what people with similar taste liked (similar to last.fm or Amazon). Compared to iTunes or Amazon’s digital reader, Maggwire is an open platform which means that content is accessible from any computer, digital reader or phone. Beside earning money through subscriptions, the owners will also monetize through user targeted ads and “a unique way of allocating channel revenue to publishers beyond simple clicks,” which Klenovich does not want to disclose just yet. We are excited to see how the magazine industry will develop in the  years to come, and if services such as Maggwire will be the way to innovate and survive for magazines in the digital age.

Maggwire