• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, May 4, 2011

After months of distinctly cool relations with the magazine business over the terms of subscription sales for the iPad, Apple is moving forward with new deals with several major publishers this week alone. The latest is Hearst Corp., which has struck a deal to sell digital subscriptions for three titles -- Esquire, Popular Mechanics and O, The Oprah Magazine -- per The Wall Street Journal.

Apps for all three titles will become available for purchase beginning with their July issues, the WSJ reports, at a price of $1.99 per month or $19.99 per year. The subscription sales model allows users to buy subscriptions within the apps themselves with automatic billing, meaning that casual visitors browsing the apps can convert to paying subscribers with relative ease.

The news comes on the heels of a new deal between Apple and Time Inc. that allows the publisher to deliver free digital editions to iPad owners who already subscribe to print magazines. The deal will make digital editions of Time, Fortune and Sports Illustrated available.

Previously, Apple had refused to allow publishers to make free digital editions available to print subscribers, as such an arrangement would take advantage of Apple's iPad platform without compensating the company.

In February, Apple unveiled a digital subscription model that allows users to buy subs for magazines and other kinds of content through Apple's App Store. The tech company relaxed its previous prohibition on disclosing consumer information to publishing partners by agreeing to share the name, email address and Zip code of those who subscribe to digital content -- provided the customers consent.

Apple also relinquished some control by allowing publishers to sell digital subscriptions via their own Web sites, and to offer free digital editions to people who already subscribe to the print version. Publishers get to keep all the revenue from subs sold outside the Apple app store.