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Apple Buys Texture, a 'Netflix For Magazines' App (ft.com)

Posted by msmash on from the next-up dept.

Apple said on Monday it will acquire Texture, a digital magazine app, as the iPhone maker looks to fill the gap left by Facebook's pullback from news distribution. From a report: The deal is Apple's latest move to build out its content and services platform, coming just three months after it announced plans to acquire Shazam, the music recognition app, for around $400m. First launched in 2010, Texture has been described as "Netflix for magazines," as its $10-per-month subscription service provides unlimited access to more than 220 publications including People, the New Yorker, Vanity Fair, National Geographic and Vogue. Further reading: Recode.

6 of 43 comments (clear)

  1. Snark by pr0t0 · · Score: 2

    What is a "magazine"?

    The difference between a "digital magazine" and a web site is the ads are always full-page in the magazine.

    --
    I'm sorry, but your opinion seems to be wrong.
    1. Re:Snark by OrangeTide · · Score: 3, Funny

      It's like an ebook with color full page advertisements.

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  2. If Apple went with Netflix model, could be good by SuperKendall · · Score: 3, Interesting

    An app by itself that just presents the world of magazines as we know it, is nice but not very useful. There are not that many magazines I actually want to read...

    Now what would be lots more interesting, is Apple really going the Netflix model - in addition to providing access to normal magazines, what if Apple spent even just a billion dollars on producing really out there magazines? Something no traditional publisher would produce because of risk, but Apple could back and present through the app as a hook, the same way Netflix has original series that are a draw to use the service and thus also see other content.

    Apple could even do things like short run magazines, that only had five-ten issues, or really interactive stuff since it's presented in an app. There are a lot of exciting possibilities there!

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:If Apple went with Netflix model, could be good by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 2

      Apple could even do things like short run magazines, that only had five-ten issues, or really interactive stuff since it's presented in an app. There are a lot of exciting possibilities there!

      And they already have the Publishing and viewing Infrastructure there for rich, interactive content, with their largely unknown, but still excellent (and Free!), iBooks Author Application:

      https://www.apple.com/ibooks-a...

    2. Re:If Apple went with Netflix model, could be good by barc0001 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      > An app by itself that just presents the world of magazines as we know it, is nice but not very useful

      You're making a pretty blanket statement based on your personal tastes. It may not be useful - to you - but many people would find it useful and more cost effective than buying magazines all the time. Also, have you actually looked at what's on offer for Texture, or are you just going by what you see at the supermarket as "the world of magazines"? I took a look a few minutes ago and was surprised to see there is a magazine devoted to beer, among other things.

      I'm not sure this would be for me, but if I did get a subscription I can easily see myself reading Popular Mechanics, Make:, This Old House, National Geographic and PC World, among others while I'm on the train commuting. Would be a damn sight better than reading the fragmented snippets of news and social media I currently make do with on that trip.

  3. Re:Magazines? You mean from before the Internet? by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 2

    I found it funny, when my grandma, and my not very smart Apple fan dad installed "magazine" and "newspaper" apps. Nearly the epitome of the opposite of a digital native ... The only thing missing would be for them to print out the Internet. (We actually have a word for that, here in Germany: Internetausdrucker. It means literally that.)

    So this nonsense right here ... Let's just say, the people who coined the term "Eternal September" couldn't have imagined how bad it would get ...

    We need a new Internet. For real digital natives only. (So if you confuse the WWW with the Internet, don't have root on any of your devices, don’t own a personal computer, or can't at the very least make a shell script, you can't get in.)

    Ah, glad to see the Computer Priesthood is alive and well, and still doesn't get why it will never be the year of Linux on the Desktop!