Today, Playboy Enterprises has launched i.Playboy.com, a site that gives you access to every page from every issue of Playboy ever published. That sure is a lot of…articles.

Here’s the scope of what we are talking about here: 130,000 pages from over 57 years of magazines – every centerfold, pictorial, reporting piece, interview and even every advertisement.

In addition to providing users with access to all issues from December 1953 to present, the site will also feature exclusive videos and curated content recommendations submitted by members of the Playboy Commission, a high-profile panel of celebrated individuals from art, design, fashion, media and technology. Commission members will provide their own content suggestions from the Playboy archives for users to explore and enjoy each month, beginning in June.

The site, i.playboy.com, is optimized for the iPad, meaning you can navigate the service with relative ease and fluidity. Each magazine issue that you open has a content page with yellow highlighted areas that users can tap to jump quickly from section to section within the issue. A promotional video at the site tells users to “zoom in for more detail” by pinching the screen. I’m sure people will.

A subscription to the service will be offered for multiple time-frames. It will run users $8 per month if they pay monthly. A year’s subscription is $60 while a 2-year subscription is $100. You will save a substantial amount of money by going with the 2-year plan.

Here’s what Playboy’s content officer Jimmy Jellinek says about the new service, as quoted at the Chicago Tribune:

Jellinek is optimistic people will pony up the $8 per month or $60 per year for a service that’s “meant to appeal to that sense of collective nostalgia and affinity.” He calls the website “the world’s sexiest time machine” and “an anthology of cool” for a magazine he refers to as “the Mount Rushmore of literary greatness.”

In an age where the next naked girl in just a *free* click away, will people pony up the cash for Playboy online? The magazine has always had the reputation as “classy” pornography, which is more than can be said for much of the stuff on the web. Will the nostalgia factor create subscription sales? Are the interviews with famous people like John Lennon and articles by Jack Kerouac enough to draw people in?

I would think that every page from every Playboy issue ever published is quite an historical document in its own right, and that could drive enough interest to make i.playboy.com work. I mean, come one – when’s the last time you saw the Marilyn Monroe Playboy spread?

Does i.playboy.com interest you?

Do you think Hearst’s success in traditional publishing will extend to triumph in the online world? Let us know in the comments section.

With 14 magazines and 23 sites, the company has 40 apps to accompany them. "Our digital library is a huge asset," he said, later adding "It’s not just the assets. It’s what you do with them."

Hearst goes well beyond simply re-creating its print experiences for digital platforms whether they be the publications’ websites or mobile apps. For its sites it creates unique content. For its apps it not only creates unique content, but unique app experiences altogether. Many of Heart’s brand apps offer different services or entertaining experiences that aren’t just reading. And this goes beyond even video, audio, and animation. It’s about creating a interesting experience. 

None of these apps are free. Loughlin says that while much of the Blogosphere says this stuff should be free, he disagrees, noting that these bloggers should see the bills that come along with developing this stuff. 

"It’s not just about brand exposure," said Loughlin. "It’s about creating a sufficiently strong impression."

"When people ask me, ‘Is print dead?’ I say hell no" he added.

Hearst’s paid print subscriptions sold via the web have gone up significantly in the last four years.

While I’ve long been skeptical of the notion that a substantial amount of people will pay for digital content when there is so much other content available for free, 

Hearst has the right idea when it comes to making this work, I think, if it’s really going to.  It’s all about keeping it unique and creating interesting experiences beyond just readable (or even watchable or listenable) content.

Let us know what you make of Loughlin’s thoughts — and if you have any additional ideas — in the comments section.

Kobo is backed by Indigo Books & Music, Borders, REDgroup Retail, Cheung Kong Holdings, and others. In July, Borders launched its own branded eBook store powered by Kobo. At that time, Border CEO Mike Edwards said, "The race to emerge as a retail leader within the digital category is just starting." 

Since then, Samsung has unveiled its Android-powered Galaxy Tab, and Kobo announced that it would be supplying the e-reader technology for it. Kobo has apps for the iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, Android, and Palm Pre. 

Today’s announcement, however, only applies to the reader, the iPhone and iPad apps at this point. Publications include: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Scientist, The Seattle Times, Wilson Quarterly, Foreign Affairs, American Scholar, China International Business, Columbus Dispatch , Guideposts, Harvard Business Review, National Review, New York Observer, PC Magazine, Publishers Weekly, Reason, The Christian Science Monitor Daily Briefing, The Nation, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Montreal Gazette, National Post, Ottawa Citizen, Regina Leader-Post, Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, Vancouver Province, Vancouver Sun, Victoria Times-Colonist, and The Globe & Mail.   

The company says it will continue to expand its offerings in this area. The newspapers’ and magazines’ formats are emulated on Kobo’s offerings. Still, readers can customize text sizes.

"Kobo continues to build on our commitment of making sure that consumers have the best reading experience on any device with the largest selection of content worldwide," said Kobo CEO Michael Serbinis. "We’ve had tremendous success with eBooks and we’re very excited to expand the Kobo offering to include newspapers and magazines with a two-week free trial, allowing consumers to try first without any obligation. We continue to bring on top publishers to ensure that Kobo’s newspaper and magazine offering meets our customers’ highest expectations."

After the two-week trial, monthly subscription prices start at $13.99 for newspapers and $2.99 for magazines. Kobo also claims to have over 2.2 million eBooks available.

However, despite the significant drop in new titles launched, there have also been a great deal less to die. Only 87 magazines went under during the first half of this year, compared to 279 in the first half of 2009. Additionally, 16 print magazines converted to online-only formats, compared to 43 in 2009.

"More magazine titles would have ceased publication but fortunately were acquired and continued publication," says Trish Hagood, President of MediaFinder publisher Oxbridge Communications. "Smaller companies took advantage of the opportunity to buy magazines from Reed Business Information and Nielsen Business Media, who were struggling to divest themselves quickly of many b-to-b titles."

The food category led new magazine launches with 10, while the home category led shutdowns, losing 10 titles. However, the home category also gained 5.

In the B2B space, 35 titles were lost, while 17 were launched. Hat tip to AdAge for pointing to MediaFinder’s release.

The percentage of subscriptions generated from the Internet has increased steadily since 2006:

"Magazine publishers are being smart about leveraging online marketing opportunities to expand their audience, grow readership and increase subscription revenues," said Nina Link, President and CEO, MPA. 

"Internet sub sales have almost doubled in the last three years.  The web is now the largest subscription source for one in five magazines."

Other highlights from the report include:

*The Internet will represent 13% of total subscription sales (new and renewal) in 2010.

*Magazine-branded websites are the leading source of Internet subscriptions, representing 43% of sales.

*Other leading Internet sources include email, cross selling, upsells and third-party partnerships and affiliates.

*93% of Internet subscriptions are sold direct to publishers.

*The leading subscription agents are Amazon.com and Magazines.com.
 

The majority (91%) of e-reader owners read magazines, while 84 percent of total U.S. adults are magazine readers. In addition, e-reader owners read an average of 13 magazine issues a month, compared to 11 issues for average adults.

Current e-reader owners are more likely to have a favorable view about the value of magazines. Just over quarter (26%) are more likely than the average adult to say magazines relax them, 20 percent more likely than the average adult to report that magazines make them think and 11 percent more likely to feel magazines give them good ideas.

"There has been a lot of conversation about whether e-readers and tablets will provide an added boost to magazine readership," said Anne Marie Kelly, SVP, Marketing & Strategic Planning at MRI. 

"MRI’s data certainly show e-reader owners are strong fans of magazines–a good indication for the potential of these devices to become strong magazine platforms once they are broadly adopted by the marketplace."

Methods and systems for segmenting printed media pages into individual articles quickly and efficiently. A printed media based image that may include a variety of columns, headlines, images, and text is input into the system which comprises a block segmenter and a article segmenter system. The block segmenter identifies and produces blocks of textual content from a printed media image while the article segmenter system determines which blocks of textual content belong to one or more articles in the printed media image based on a classifier algorithm. A method for segmenting printed media pages into individual articles is also presented.

An archived newspaper page in Google News (content not separated)

A hat tip goes to Erik Sherman writing for Bnet, who says, "Although this could allow Google to convert stacks of periodicals into electronic archives, it potentially sends the company headlong into conflict with a famous Supreme Court ruling on media law."

"There’s just one legal problem: New York Times Co. , et. al. v. Jonathan Tasini et. al. Usually called the Tasini case, freelance writers sued the New York Times and other print publications for licensing individual articles to database companies without permission from the writers, who retained the copyright on the articles," he explains. "One of the main turning points was that the publishers had explicit permission only to include the articles in the print publication. However, copyright law did not allow the publishers to break their publications up and make the articles accessible to readers out of the original context."

He goes on to note that Google could go back far enough into old print archives before rights were such an issue, and would be dealing with freelance writers who mostly didn’t copyright their articles. The technology could certainly be used in any future partnerships the company could make with print publishers, should the publications ever wish to go that route.

What do you make of the patent? You can read the entire patent application here, in patent application-speak.

These companies released a joint announcement today saying that they have entered into an independent venture to develop open standards for a new digital storefront and related technology that will "allow consumers to enjoy their favorite media content on portable digital devices."

The idea is that publishers can boost online revenue in a similar fashion to what the companies behind Hulu are doing with online television The publishers say the goal is to create a highly featured common reading application capable of rendering the distinctive look and feel of each publication, a publishing platform optimized for multiple devices, operating systems and screen sizes, a consumer storefront with an extensive selection of publications, and a rich array of advertising opportunities.

The selection of publications will not be limited to just those from the companies involved. They are saying that the venture will welcome other publishers to offer their content as well. Publishers will get their revenue from content and advertising sales, as well as print subscriptions.

"For the consumer, this digital initiative will provide access to an extraordinary selection of engaging content products, all customized for easy download on the device of their choice, including smartphones, e-readers and laptops," explained John Squires, the venture’s interim managing director. "Once purchased, this content will be ‘unlocked’ for consumers to enjoy anywhere, anytime, on any platform."

The storefront will of course offer magazine and newspaper publications, but will also include books, comic books, blogs, and other media. The venture does not yet have a name. It will be interesting to see what they come up with and if consumers jump on board with the model.

Is this a step in the right direction for publishers? Tell us what you think.

Related Articles:

> Google Changes How it Handles Paid Content

> Minds of the Media Gather to Discuss Future of News

> Google Okay With Blocking News Corp.

> Is it Really Crazy to Block Google?

"Over time, as we scan more articles, you’ll see more and more magazines appear in Google Book Search results," says software engineer Dave Foulser. "Eventually, we’ll also begin blending magazine results into our main Google.com search results, so you may begin finding magazines you didn’t even know you were looking for. For now you can restrict your search to magazines we’ve scanned by trying an advanced search."

So far, Google has partnered with titles like New York Magazine, Popular Mechanics, and Ebony, with plenty more sure to follow. They provide the example of a search for "hank aaron catching babe" (without the quotes) and a result from an Ebony Magazine issue from 1973.

In Google Book Search, magazine article results are tagged with the word "Magazine" within the regular results. Hopefully they will add an option to search magazines specifically.

The addition of magazines is a nice addition to Google Book search and will make a nice addition to blended results in regular Google queries in the future. It also compliments the newspaper archives offered through Google news. I wonder if magazines will be integrated there as well.

A fresh online version of Details is almost certainly sitting on the backburner.  Otherwise, David Kaplan writes, "A high level source at the company tells me that aside from Details, Conde Nast had been planning on creating several independent sites for a number of its mags next year, including GQ and Conde Nast Traveler."

Such a big turnabout sounds a bit scary, especially in light of Conde Nast’s decision earlier this week to close Flip.com, a social scrapbooking site.  In keeping with the kitchen metaphor, one has to wonder what else – Wired?  The New Yorker? – is getting nudged towards the chopping block.

Flip.com appears to have been a bona fide failure, however, with Compete putting its number of unique visitors down 87.6 percent year-over-year.  Details.com, CNTraveller.com, and GQ.com are all experiencing impressive levels of growth, so the idea of them getting left alone isn’t so bad.

Anyway, as Matt Van Hoven asked about a new Details.com, "What would that look like . . . about 10 million pages, each of which contains be-hipstered, chachily-mustachiod men?  Can’t wait!"