The digital app, offering an “all-you-can-read” magazine service, will give consumers unlimited access to as many magazines as they want from a wide range of global publishers for a low subscription of just £9.99 per month, says Readly.
Having launched successfully in 2012 in its home market of Sweden and in the USA last year Readly will roll out to UK consumers in March and globally through the rest of the year.
Readly has been designed to complement publishers’ existing digital channels while bringing unique, new benefits to the marketplace. Readly streamlines the digital publishing process by utilising the same files that are already prepared for print versions of magazines allowing publishers to expand their consumer outreach with no additional infrastructure. Moreover, according to Readly, evidence from Sweden indicates there is only a 2% overlap between Readly and publishers’ own customer data suggesting a vast opportunity for new customer acquisition.
Analytics (exclusive to Readly) will also provide publishers with invaluable data that can unlock new business and revenue enhancement opportunities. Its cloud-based back office system supports publishers’ business needs by providing a seamless system to update their publications around the clock.
Ranj Begley, Readly UK’s MD said, “Readly offers an additional revenue stream, general profile-raising and really granular consumer insight. It is a win-win model for everyone. The publishers we have spoken to so far have been really excited by the service.”
Figures from the PPA, the industry body for UK magazine publishers, suggest that digital magazine sales still account for less than 2% of total paid-for copy sales even though the penetration of tablets and smartphones has exploded. Consumer subscription models have already proven to work in the music and film industries and the PPA believes services such as Readly could bring digital magazines to a much larger audience.
"Readly offers UK consumers a new proposition for magazines; one which has the potential to add real scale and presence to what publishers are already doing themselves", said Barry McIlheney, CEO of the PPA. "We are delighted that Readly has come to the UK and we welcome them as our key digital partner for the year ahead."
About Readly UK
Readly says: “Readly UK Ltd is the UK subsidiary of Readly International AB, a privately owned company head quartered in Sweden. Formed in 2012, the company currently employs over 30 people in four countries (Sweden, USA, Germany and the UK), deals with 80 publishers, promotes 300 magazine brands and holds 3,000 issues of these magazines for consumers to buy. The company’s founder, Joel Wikell, achieved success in the online gaming industry with Casino.com. He applied his technical know-how to brief a team to create the Readly app which was a year in development before going live in Sweden in Spring 2013. The company has ambitious plans to roll the service out across Europe and a number of other territories over the next year.”
