• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, March 12, 2018

Further aligning itself with “quality” magazine publishers, Apple has agreed to buy Texture -- an app that gives subscribers access to around 200 popular titles.

Known to some as the “Netflix of magazine publishing,” Texture currently charges a monthly fee of $9.99 in exchange for its digital newsstand.

Along with the added subscription revenue, the deal makes sense for Apple; its gadgets are as only as valuable as the content they carry. 

“We are committed to quality journalism from trusted sources and allowing magazines to keep producing beautifully designed and engaging stories,” Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, stated.

Originally known as Next Issue, the subscription service was formed by Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corp. and Time Inc. back in in 2009. In 2015, the app changed its name to Texture, while the venture continued to operate as Next New Media.

Among other major investments, the joint venture raised $50 million from KKR in late 2014.

In late 2016, the Alliance for Audited Media (AAM) certified Texture to verify its circulation numbers for advertisers. This allowed participating publishers to report issues requested and opened by paying subscribers as paid subscriptions sales rather than newsstand sales.

Rarely do a few years go by without Apple buying some type of publishing or subscription platform. In 2014, for instance, the tech titan bought BookLamp to boost its ebooks efforts.

Partly as a result, Apple’s services division is increasingly adding to the company’s bottom line. During its fiscal first quarter, Apple saw service-related revenue of about $8.5 billion, which was up 18%, year-over-year.

At least for now, Apple has no plans to tinker with Texture.