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Comment by Samuel_Michon | Hacker News Reader

As a user, I like Newsstand a lot. No longer is my personal information being sold by publishers to marketing firms. No longer do I need to trust publishers to be careful with my credit card information. Payments happen automatically, as part of my regular iTunes bills. New issues are downloaded automatically, so I always have something to read when I’m traveling. And on top of that, iPad issues are much cheaper than physical copies.

I do think that publishers need to step up and make better apps, but that’s not a Newsstand issue. They should learn from The Magazine[1], which uses the medium perfectly: issues load in seconds, articles aren’t too long and are accompanied by great retina photos, and the cover icons are legible, even on iPhone.

[1] http://the-magazine.org/

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I like Newsstand a lot too. Another really great example is Sound on Sound magazine (http://www.soundonsound.com/). It really captures what an iOS-magazine experience should look and feel like (dynamic content, interactive diagrams/pictures, easy navigation, etc).

I guess it would work just as well as a stand-alone app, but there's something nice about all my magazine content being located in a single location.

None of that requires Newsstand. The article isn't discussing "reading magazines on your iPad" but rather "creating apps that fit into Apple's 'Newsstand' category" which is nearly a completely different thing. The whole point of this article is that you don't need to use Newsstand to get the things you describe, and in fact you're better off not doing so.

The article is very developer centric. I shared what I’m looking for as a consumer. As a consumer, I don’t really care whether developing for Newsstand is inconvenient for some small shops. I have quit paying for digital magazines that didn’t switch to Newsstand.

I do have to say that people like indies like Glenn Fleischman and Dave Eggers use Newsstand brilliantly, so it’s by no means only an option for the likes of Condé Nast.

As a consumer, you shouldn't care about whether they use Newsstand, you should care about whether they provide the functionality you want. All of the functionality you want can be provided without Newsstand, so why do you insist on Newsstand?

Finding magazines works a lot better and more pleasant in Newsstand than it does in the regular App Store. All the magazines have cover art that changes with every issue, instead of an icon depicting some meaningless logo. And as a bonus, you can check out all the magazines for free.

I wish the rest of the App Store would be like Newsstand.

That makes sense, then. I was simply going off the list in your original comment, where none of what you listed required Newsstand.

True, and that’s why I followed up.

>>As a consumer, you shouldn't care about whether they use Newsstand, you should care about whether they provide the functionality you want.

Or perhaps you shouldn't tell him what he should care about and what he shouldn't. Just a thought.

Nah, that’s fine. I used my own experiences to show how consumers in general might actually prefer Newsstand magazines over magazines placed elsewhere in the App Store. Of course that opens up a discussion and that was the point. If I didn’t want input, I should’ve just kept it to myself.

I'm going based off of his own list. Sheesh.

Can apps not have regular payment subscriptions as well? I don't see how Newsstand is necessary for anything you want.

> The whole point of this article is that you don't need to use Newsstand to get the things you describe, and in fact you're better off not doing so.

I don’t think the article does a good job at explaining why developers would be better off not using Newsstand.

The only thing I saw mentioned as a disadvantage of Newsstand is that magazine titles aren’t placed on the main level but in a separate folder labeled ‘Newsstand’. That supposedly makes the magazines hard to find. However, many comments in this thread are about how prominent Newsstand is placed and how it is hard to ignore (ie. it can’t be removed, and until recently it couldn’t be stowed in a junk folder).

It's all about shelf space. Walk down a grocery aisle and you see Oreos, Chips Ahoy, Wheat Thins, etc. If you are a new maker of sweet / salty snacks, what would you prefer: your product appear in equal placement with the others (i.e. on a shelf for all to see), or hidden in a cabinet with a generic "food" label on it?

An iPad (or iWhatever) owner's screen is the same as the aisle. Of course, they can put items into folders, but its their own choice, and even then the folders give a representation of what's inside. Plus, if they choose to folder-ize, having done so deliberately they'll more likely remember where to find their favorite periodicals (and that they're there in the first place).

Placing a digital magazine in the Newsstand Store is like placing it in the magazine section of a supermarket. Placing a digital magazine in another category in the App Store is like leaving a jar of peanut butter in the detergents aisle of a supermarket.

However, once the digital magazine is sold, either through the Newsstand Store or the App Store, the shopping experience is forgotten. The item is paid for and placed in one of the customer’s kitchen cabinets. Magazines sold through Newsstand are placed in a logical place, magazines sold through another category of the App Store are not, it is up to the user to place it somewhere they can find it. I like my peanut butter to be automatically placed next to the honey and jelly, I have no need to put it in another cabinet next to the oregano and peppermill.

Also I find it funny that they think their personal information isn't being collected and potentially sold.

Apple already has my information. If I subscribe to a print magazine, that makes one more company that knows my personal information and credit card information, and they are (unlike Apple) infamous for selling that information to marketing firms. If I subscribe to that same magazine via Newsstand, the publisher gets none of that information from Apple and my information is still as safe as if I hadn’t signed up for the magazine.

When you download ANY Newstand app, ANY Newstand app at all, you're running third party software that is making connections to third party servers.

Perhaps you believe that iOS is so locked down that the third party doesn't have your info to send to their own servers and monetize? But in the wake of oh-so-many "app uploads all of your info" situations, I find it surprising to believe this.

Yes, Apple isn't forwarding your payment information but that doesn't mean that nothing at all goes to the publisher. They're going to get info on you, both through Apple and through their app on your device. They thrive on getting that info, and more than one is likely going to monetize that info as best they can.

It comes with the territory but please do not think that because Apple handles billing, magically all of your data is safe.

That's precisely the reason that the Financial Times cancelled their iOS app and went with a pure HTML edition a while back - they wanted the subscriber information and Apple refused to give it to them.

Uh the subscriber details is what they want and what they don't get. They aren't going to be able to monetize my IP address or whatever else technical data they get from the app.

So basically Apple handles all the billing, and my data is safe.

one more company that knows my personal information and credit card information, and they are (unlike Apple) infamous for selling that information to marketing firms

Indeed. Heck, for many periodicals that's how they can afford to stay in business in the first place, their content is so thin.

I'm with you, and I think it's pretty clear which creators Newsstand is for, from who's building effective experiences and who isn't.

Old media complained about losing access to readers and hasn't invested in this new medium beyond an Adobe export tool. Native digital publishers with low overhead are happy about the new distribution channel and a way to assign value to their content by periodicalizing it, and embrace new digital tools with their constraints.

After presiding over the app revolution, who do you think Apple designed Newsstand for?

Like others mention, this doesn't require Newsstand - A good example of a great magazine is TRVL - it's free and looks beautiful on my iPad… and it's just an app.

I don't think people really value their privacy, or the no-hassle nature of newsstand would appeal to a lot more folks. Instead, we have a culture where either your information is already out there, and you get spammed/junkmailed/coldcalled a lot, or it's not, and you can't exactly trace how someone got it.

People do care about privacy if they are given fair choice.

When choices are between

1) FREE (in small print, give up privacy) vs 2) Pay $X (and protect privacy)

FREE overwhelmingly influences the choice.

However, if you find a market where all competitor directly charge comparable prices to consumers for the product and choices are

A) Pay $x and enjoy the product vs B) Pay $x, give up privacy and enjoy the product as well ads

then it'd be interesting if option B) would gain significant traction.

>And on top of that, iPad issues are much cheaper than physical copies.

I haven't really noticed that. Most of the Conde Naste magazines will run you $4.99 an issue. A subscription is much cheaper, but it's much cheaper in physical copies too.

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