Jim Dalrymple, in an interview at MacStories about his newly-released The Loop Magazine:
Apple’s Newsstand is the first time since 1994 that I’ve felt another shift in the publishing industry was upon us, so I jumped at it. Apple takes care of distribution, payments and the business side of things, leaving the publisher focus on what they do best – publishing great content.
In some ways, I feel like I’m back in 1994. The traditional magazine outlets are having a hard time wrapping their heads around platforms like Newsstand and the best way to publish content. I’m confident that offering readers exclusive long-form articles in a clean app is the way to go.
Even though it’s been around since iOS 5, it seems that Newsstand has just now started to gain traction. This surely is a combination of just how bad most Newsstand apps are, contrasted with how lightweight and enjoyable things like The Magazine are to use.
I for one am excited to see Jim’s new magazine harness Newsstand, and really think that the service has a much brighter future ahead of it thanks to projects like this. While the technical bits are still a pretty steep cost of entry, services like TypeEngine are making it easier to approach. If publishing to Newsstand were as easy as setting up a WordPress or Squarespace site, just imagine the potential.