• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, June 8, 2011

With Apple introducing new products and services to help magazine and newspaper publishers peddle their wares on the iPad, it looked like the tech company was ironing out its conflicts with the media business.

But some publishers are still balking at the cost of distribution via the Apple App Store, which gives Apple a 30% share of all subscription and newsstand sales. That's why the Financial Times has launched its own HTML Web app for tablets and smartphones, which allows it to circumvent Apple's sales system altogether.

FT CEO John Ridding stated: "The FT Web App offers our customers flexibility and freedom of choice with access to our global journalism anytime, anywhere, with a single log-in or subscription." He added that in a digital world, the newspaper wanted to "keep our service simple, easy to use and efficient ..."

As part of this goal, the company will be introducing a version optimized for Android as well.

However, the HTML Web app seems to be, at least in part, a gambit to get Apple to agree to take a smaller share of subscription revenues. FT online managing director Rob Grimshaw tells The Guardian: "Their terms don't work for us. They won't move; we hope they will. It is a bit of a Mexican standoff."

To promote the new HTML Web app, FT is offering free access during the first week; after that, users have to buy a standard FT online subscription.

Separately, Apple continues to court publishers with new services designed to make it easier to sell subscriptions. Those include a new "Newsstand" in the iOS 5 that brings together the users' subscriptions in a single display, with an associated e-commerce area dedicated exclusively to newspaper and magazine subscriptions.