Time Inc.plans to offer a tablet edition for all 21 of its magazines by the end of 2011, the company announced Wednesday. That will make it the first major publisher to make all its titles available across all platforms.
This marks the biggest commitment to digital sales yet for Time, which already has tablet editions of its four biggest titles — Sports Illustrated, Time, Fortune and People — but not the rest. Now the remaining 17, including InStyle and Entertainment Weekly, will make the jump as well.
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The news comes on the same day that parent company Time Warner announced double-digit earnings and the same year Time Inc. has announced new subscription plans for its premier titles.
“Now is the time for us to make this bold commitment," Maurice Edelson, Executive Vice President and a member of Time Inc.'s interim managment committee, said in a statement. "In the coming year, there will clearly be many more consumers using tablets, accelerating demand for content and driving advertiser interest. We are putting ourselves in a great position to take advantage of these opportunities."
Time also announced an agreement with Barnes & Noble to sell digital subscriptions and single-copy issues of Fortune, People, Sports Illustrated and Time on the Nook Color starting later in August. The rest of its titles should be available by the end of the year.
Time's digital titles were already to most tablet owners, including those with iPads, Android tablet and the HP TouchPad.
The company says that its digital content and other magazines apps have already been downloaded uwpards of 11 million times and that it has sold more than 600,000 digital copies of Fortune, People, Sports Illustrated and Time alone.
As part of its plan to bring print and digital closer together, Time will incorporate print ads into the digital editions.
Time did receive a bit of bad news today. John Korpics, a top magazine designer, has left the company for ESPN, Adweek reports.