Google Currents to Sell Subscriptions After Re-Launch as Google Play Newsstand

Two years ago, I wrote about Google’s new app, Currents, which, at the time, was a consumer and publisher-friendly app but lacked the ability

Two years ago, I wrote about Google’s new app, Currents, which, at the time, was a consumer and publisher-friendly app but lacked the ability for publishers to sell digital subscriptions. Like social media, the app would have been great for distributing free content, but not for driving sales for premium content.That’s apparently changed as Google folds Currents into its new Google Play Newsstand and allows publishers like The New York Times to sell digital subscriptions (no word yet on if there’s a metered model through the app). From a consumer angle, the app is also better than any iOS app subscription since Google Play works a bit like Flipboard, offering feeds from more than 1,900 publications and creating personalized feeds that mixes and matches stories about topics a user is interested in.The app is so promising, The Financial Times, which very publicly created an HTML5 app to get around Apple’s stringent rules, is on board.As for market readiness — so far, Android users seem less likely to pay for content than iOS users. But that may change with the growing popularity of Android-based tablets, like the new Kindle and Surface. In addition, last we checked, Google takes only a 10% cut from subscription sales versus Apple’s 30% cut (Google does take a 30% cut for one-time sales and downloads through Play).There are some reports that the Google Play Newsstand app is not as robust as home-made apps by some publications like The Wall Street Journal. And at the same time, if your publication is already on Google Play Magazine app, you will be updated to the Newsstand app automatically.The one major hitch for consumers, however, may be the varying rules all these platforms provide. For example, if you buy The New York Times via Google Play Newsstand, for instance, you’ll only be able to read the digital paper in Google’s Newsstand app, and not on the Times’ other Android and iOS apps. We imagine this may be because Google is still not releasing email addresses of Play subscribers, so publishers are pushing sales through their own sites, still.Hopefully, just as Google has evolved to allow publishers to sell subscriptions, they will also evolve to let publishers email their own paying subscribers as well.

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