• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, October 1, 2015

Next Issue Media, the digital publishing platform co-owned by the nation’s biggest magazine publishers, is introducing a new subscription service called Texture, which gives subscribers new features for curating and personalizing digital magazine content.

The new features expand on NIM’s previous subscription service, which gave readers options including unlimited access to magazines from multiple publishers.

Texture subscriptions cost $9.99 a month for unlimited access to monthlies, and $14.99 a month for unlimited access to monthlies and weeklies, including 160 magazines from publishers including Condé Nast, Hearst Magazines, Meredith, News Corp, Rogers Media and Time Inc.

In addition to an updated user interface, Texture offers features including “Curated Collections,” which presents content from various publications around particular themes hand-selected by Texture’s editorial team, with a focus on uncovering content that is new to readers.

Another feature, “My Collections,” allows readers to assemble their own reading lists using a range of criteria.

Texture also now offers a “New & Noteworthy” section, “Top Stories” showing trending subjects, and expanded search functions. It also offers access to historical content, allowing users to search or browse 15,000 back issues containing over 500,000 stories.

NIM Editorial Director Maggie Murphy emphasized the human element in the new curated collections. “Auto-populated recommendations from data driven engines are valuable, and we make use of them. But we also think there’s an element of trust that happens when your best friend shares their latest favorite article or recipe with you. We want to be that best friend to the reader.”

Next Issue was formed by Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corp. and Time Inc. in 2009, in order to raise the profile of digital magazines and scale up the marketplace. In December 2014, it raised $50 million in a new round of funding from KKR, an investment firm, to expand its digital magazine platform and make its unlimited access subscriptions available to a wider audience.