A recent study by research firm Distimo has shown that the top 100 publications in Apple’s iOS Newsstand bring in about $70,000 per day.
Newsstand was released last October as a new feature for Apple’s iOS 5. It allows users to buy digital versions of newspapers and magazines which are optimized for iPad, and iPhone/iPod, to a lesser extent. The app is displayed as a folder on the iOS home screen, making it hard to ignore. Apple gets its typical 30% of the profits garnered by publications that utilize Newsstand.
The study shows that the majority of the daily revenue generated comes from U.S. users – The New York Times, News Corp.’s The Daily and the New Yorker are some of the highest money makers. News apps as whole bring in 7% of the Newsstand gross. When Newsstand debuted, many large magazines were reporting a boost in sales – Condé Nast saw a 268% increase in revenue, prompting the company to modify its digital strategy to better focus on Newsstand.