Newsstand Smooths Out iOS Mag-Reading but Could Use Some Curb Appeal

Apple's new Newsstand promises to help keep magazines and newspapers top-of-mind. Instead of losing a magazine app into the mass of app and folder-laden pages on your iPad, you have a consistent place to go to find them, as well as launch into the magazine app area of iTunes. It'll also automatically update your periodicals. Unfortunately, the visual appeal of a real newsstand is mostly lost in translation.

Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) new Newsstand app, built into iOS 5, is an enigma.

For starters, it's not exactly a "newsstand," which is a rack of magazines and newspapers you can browse through, quite possibly on the side of a street. The bookshelf-like Newsstand app sports a pleasingly angled shelf style, similar to the bookcase shelf of iBooks. And like iBooks, it only holds your magazine subscriptions that work with the Newsstand app. If you're not a subscriber, you won't see a magazine on your Newsstand.
To find a magazine issue to buy (or subscribe to), you have to go to the new Newsstand section of the Apple App Store. To find a magazine or newspaper, you browse as if you're looking to find an app. It's not anything akin to scanning a real newsstand, looking at covers, then diving into an issue when something meets your eye.
I was a bit disappointed.
But hey, I get it: Magazines on iPads and iPhones are not like paper magazines. They're apps. And yet, the cover art, photos and cover lines are all part of what draws us to magazines and newspapers. I sense a missed opportunity here.

Meanwhile, Back in the Pages of National Geographic

Most of the glossy magazines published these days seem to offer a few different ways to consume them via an iPad (best) or an iPhone (bit small in the screen). The first way is to download the free magazine app, then either subscribe to the digital issue for a year, get a monthly subscription that you can cancel at any time, or buy the current issue or past issues. Some publishers, like National Geographic, give you free access to an iPad app if you are a print subscriber. National Geographic started this option with the September 2011 issue. Previous issues are available for separate purchases.
Since I'm a National Geographic print subscriber, I downloaded the free app, then used the app to send my print subscriber data to National Geographic, who then made me create a user ID and password so I could access the current issues. Nice. So I started downloading an issue, and oh boy, did it take a while: 200-plus megabytes. The point? Unless you're on a super-fast WiFi connection, you'll have to plan ahead to enjoy your magazine issues -- there's no instant gratification for graphic-heavy magazines, and if you're waiting somewhere in an airport with limited time and a hokey WiFi connection, you might be better served by finding a new magazine at an airport newsstand.

That's Old School, and Newsstand Is New

Now here's where things get a little fuzzy. Apple says that Newsstand will automatically download whatever's new for each of my magazine or newspaper app subscriptions. The downloads will happen in the background, and they won't even interrupt my regular iPad use. Now that's cool. Except, I'm not sure how well it works yet -- like almost everyone else, I've only just started with Newsstand. Ask me a again in six weeks or so after my subscriptions have chances to automatically update.
So that's the key promise of Newsstand -- something much closer to instant access.
As an organizing application, though, Newsstand also promises to help keep magazines and newspapers top-of-mind. Instead of losing a magazine app into the mass of app and folder-laden pages on your iPad, you have a consistent place to go to find them, as well as launch into the magazine app shopping area of iTunes.
This is handy for consumers, and I believe pretty useful for publishers, too. Of course, Apple takes its 30 percent cut of purchases made through the Apple App Store, so publishers might be in the throes of a love-hate relationship with Apple.
Last of all, it's important to note that each magazine or newspaper publisher creates their own magazine apps for Newsstand. So the in-magazine app experience will vary widely from magazine to magazine, not only in content, but in delivery. Plus, an iPad magazine subscription might only barely resemble a print issue that you would find on a real newsstand.
Two last key points: When I first tried to use Newsstand right after iOS 5 was first available, it seemed as if something was wonky in the App Store because very few magazines were available through it. Now, though, there's a couple hundred.
And the final point? Because of the way Newsstand will help me organize and consume magazine subscriptions, I'm far more likely to buy individual magazine issues and leap into subscriptions.