Why Apple’s virtual Newsstand is driving a surge in magazine, newspaper iPad app subscriptions

From over at Poynter

The new Apple Newstand is having a significant effect on the amount of app downloads for newspapers and magazines.

The week Newsstand launched, the NYTimes for iPad app saw 189,000 new user downloads, up seven times from only 27,000 the week before, spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha told me.

That’s impressive, but it’s nothing compared to the NYTimes iPhone app, which saw 1.8 million new downloads that week, 85 times more than the 21,000 downloads the week before. Nearly one-fifth of the 9.1 million people who have ever downloaded the NYTimes iPhone app did so last week, with the launch of Newsstand.

Newstand also seems to be assisting those with paid content like National Geographic.

National Geographic jumped to the top of the Newsstand iPad app chart, and as of Wednesday is 18th most popular of all free apps. A spike in downloads is great, but for a magazine like National Geographic, the real test is whether those people then purchase a $4.99 issue or a $19.99 annual subscription. They have.

National Geographic’s rate of iPad subscriber growth increased by five times since the launch of Newsstand, President of Publishing Declan Moore told me.

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