iOS 5 & Newsstand Bring Huge Gains For Conde Nast, Say Reports

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It wasn’t so long ago when we were filling you in on Conde Nast’s move to bring their magazines to iPads everywhere via the Newsstand system–only just back in May, actually–and now, roughly six months later, there’s an update as Conde Nast is talking about some big numbers in terms of its digital subscriptions.

Not only have single issue purchases climbed fully 142 percent thanks to the addition of Newsstand, Conde Nast also says that subscriptions to their magazines in digital form have jumped fully 268 percent. That’s nearly three times the number in just six months of operation.

Conde Nast is pinning the sales hikes to Apple’s design of Newsstand, saying that it’s a lot easier to find and buy magazines on the system than it is most anywhere else Conde Nast magazines are offered. What’s unusual though is that we haven’t heard much out of the other publications that made the jump to Newsstand themselves, though considering the gains that Conde Nast is reporting, chances are the other mags have seen some impressive gains as well.

This makes sense on a lot of levels; people have their iPads around with them, and like using them, so of course they’ll need media to run on them. This is pretty much the concept driving the loss-leading nature of the Kindle Fire, after all. So the more content comes out, the more content is available for iPad users. Since there are plenty of iPad users out there, putting more content up for them suggests that more content will be sold. It’s also kind of interesting that these bigger gains didn’t kick in until Newsstand landed, but then, the added ease of use was a contributor there as we heard from Conde Nast.

But what do you guys think here? Think that it’s all Newsstand that’s driving the success? Is it epublishing in general that’s just seeing substantial gains over its rivals? Or is it a combination of factors, the movement away from paper and the ease of use that Newsstand offers, that’s fueling the gains Conde Nast and the like are seeing? No matter what you think, the comments section is waiting for you below. So head on down and tell us what you think!