‘iTunes for magazines’ launches for Dutch publishers

The Netherlands’ biggest newspaper and magazine publishers have agreed to start selling articles through an iTunes-type initiative, according to a report in the Financial Times.

Set to launch in the Netherlands in April, Blendle will allow consumers to purchase articles in one web app – with one pay wall – for as little as €0.10, and has already signed up the vast majority of Dutch publishers.

Newspapers and magazines that sell articles through Blendle can sell titles for as little or as much as they like, with Blendle taking a 30% cut of all transactions.

Marten Blankesteijn, Blendle’s co-founder, said: “We want to show publishers that you can really make money from people who never paid for journalism before.”

However, commenting on the launch, Douglas McCabe, an analyst at Enders Analysis, said that while the initiative is an interesting solution for a market like the Netherlands, it is unlikely that it would do as well in the UK and the US.

“There’s such as ubiquity of free content in the UK that it’s going to be much harder to sell to the consumer,” he said.

Last month Swedish company Readly announced plans to launch a Spotify-style product for UK magazines following a successful launch in Sweden in 2012, which will offer consumers a range of digital magazines for £9.99 a month.