Gourmet Mag Takes Page from iTunes Cookbook: Conde Could Get Rich Desserts
The deceased foodie publication Gourmet found a new life on the iPad months ago, but this week parent Conde Nast tookanother cue from Apple: the iTunes model. Now i-readers can use an in-app option for a la carte buys of classic articles and issues. Publishers, listen up.
This digital resurrection may end up a best-seller for the bloated Conde Nast as the Gourmet app breaks the magazine down to its essentials -- and converts them into money-makers.
Pay as you go means long-term rewards: Magazines traditionally use the basic cable model, which means you can't just order a particular service a la carte, but you have to buy the whole thing as a package. Sure, it exposes audiences to articles they might not know they want to read, but the cover price could discourage readers from buying a whole magazine for one article.
The iTunes model gives the user more control. There's only a small selection of articles and issues now, but it's easy to see how an Anthony Bourdain fan could zero in on -- and pay good money for -- every article the traveling chef has ever done for Gourmet. A cookie-obsessed home cook could download every shortbread-related story going back almost 70 years. If foodies create their own best-of collection, they could end up paying Conde Nast more than a cover price, subscription, and official Gourmet best-of book combined. Once considered The New Yorker of food magazines, Gourmet has a strong enough audience and a long enough lineage to still draw customers -- and their discretionary income.
Less staff means more money, better resource management: It's unclear how staffed-up the Gourmet app currently is, but I'm positive it is smaller than the large group Conde Nast had working at its often criticized big budget offices in Manhattan. That's unfortunate for those out of jobs in traditional publishing. However, the leaner staff shifts the focus to monetizing the timeless articles Gourmet has done, well, virtually nothing with over the past 70 years. The app only offers less than a dozen articles right now, showing that Conde Nast can take its time and ramp up availability as it sees financial viability.
The aforementioned The New Yorker is also in Conde Nast's stable, and as it and other publications struggle to get paid through Internet paywalls, chances are high it will end up following a variation of the model set by its resurrected cousin, Gourmet.
Photo courtesy of the halfblood prince // CC 2.0
Related: