• by Tom Siebert , September 11, 2006

It's an agreement that could spur the growth of e-edition subscriptions to many popular consumer magazines. Print distributor Kable Distribution Services has struck a revenue-sharing partnership deal with NewsStand, Inc., a digital distributor for newspapers, magazines and other print media.

The partnership seeks to streamline efforts by magazine publishers to supplement their readership via the Web. It uses an electronic edition as either a stand-alone subscription option or in addition to newsstand or snail-mail subscription issues. The deal is the first of its kind between a distributor and brick-and-mortar newsstands, delivering to email in-boxes.

This isn't just "a matter of something that's nice to have," says Myles Fuchs, senior vice president for NewsStand. "It's a matter of must have if we're going to stabilize declining rate bases."

Under the partnership, NewsStand will provide training to Kable Distribution's sales and management teams, and will handle all software and rendering. Kable will provide NewsStand with access to its publishers and their publications. The two companies will share revenue from any deals struck with publishers at predetermined milestones, Fuchs says.

Publishers using New York-based Kable Distribution include Bauer Publishing, Kappa Publishing, VNU, CurtCo, and Archie Comics. Chip Smith, vice president of Client Services for Kable, says the deal had just been inked, and none of the print distributor's more than 600 publications had yet signed on. The company will also be reaching outside its current list, and expects an enthusiastic response.

"There is a changing retail environment for magazines, and we have to get publications into the hands of people in the ways they are now reading them," Smith says. "Plus, we want to save a few trees." Based in Austin, Texas, privately held NewsStand distributes digital content for more than 200 magazine and newspaper titles in over 120 countries, including e-Edition versions of USA Today, The New York Times, Barron's, and the European and Asian editions of The Wall Street Journal.