Last month Readly – an app for reading magazines on smartphones and tablets – announced it has added 50 new magazines from 9 different publishers to its collection. For $9.99 a month, subscribers in 49 countries can get unlimited access to more than 800 magazines, including nearly 10,000 back issues, using the Readly app. Available for iOS, Android, Windows 8 and Kindle Fire, Readly’s newest titles include Rolling Stone and Men’s Journal from Wenner Media, Men’s Health, Women’s Health and Prevention from Rodale, and Adweek, Hollywood Reporter and Billboard from Prometheus Global.Headquartered in Sweden, the two-year-old Readly offers its global audience 500 titles in five languages (Swedish, English, French, German and Thai), but only 200 titles are currently available in the U.S. With the exception of some of its new additions, many of the U.S. titles are niche-based – Hot Bike, Destination Weddings & Honeymoons, Soap Opera Digest, Dressage and Rifle Shooter – rather than general interest.As a magazine lover, I was eager to download the app and try it for myself, taking advantage of the free 30-day trial. The interface is visually appealing and easy to use. When the app opens, I can sort magazines by new arrivals, alphabetical by title (ascending or descending) and recently read. I can also choose the country or language. It is easy to scroll through or search to find the magazines I want to browse, but unfortunately, Readly doesn’t offer many of my favorite magazines.In the General Interest category, for example, six publications came up – Quizfest, Celtic Life, Yikes!, Saveur, Popular Science and Bound by Ink. I love that I can use the app on up to five mobile devices in my household, but one feature I didn’t like is that Readly is only for tablets and smartphones. I can’t access the magazines on my laptop, which would make for a much better experience.The Readly menu allows subscribers to access Favorites, Bookmarks, Recently Read and Downloaded magazines, so magazines can be read online or off, a handy feature for travelers. Unfortunately, reading the magazines on a smartphone proved challenging. The print was way too small. Though the reading experience is improved on a tablet, the app is a digital reader.For subscribers who can find their favorite magazines on Readly, the $9.99 price tag per month is a steal if they read more than two magazines a month. Having access to back issues is also handy, especially for research. But for Readly to be successful long term, it needs to broaden its catalog, step up its marketing (I hadn’t heard of Readly before the announcement) and consider being more than just a digital reader, offering a more interactive experience or adding multimedia for a richer read.