Could Condé Nast be contemplating $20.00 iPad subscriptions?

It sounds like a war for your subscription dollars might be brewing behind the scenes. Wired has posted an interesting article that points out that Condé Nast may be looking to slash prices of their publications (Wired, New Yorker, GQ, etc.) from $5.00 down to $2.00, bringing annual subscription rates down to $20.00 per year.

There’s also speculation that the imminent arrival of Time Inc, and Hearst publications on the App Store could have been a motivating factor for Condé Nast to drop its prices. As it stands, Condé Nast has declined to comment.

For the consumer

Taking a step into consumer’s shoes for a moment, this move can’t be considered anything but a success. Cheaper subscriptions may mean a higher likelihood that people will start opting in to subscriptions. The one thing that has been keeping me from personally subscribing to digital subscriptions has been price. At $20.00 per year, I’d subscribe to The New Yorker in an instant.

Do you think $20.00 per year is a price point that would sway you towards purchasing a subscription of your favorite digital magazine? I think it might.

The obvious business problems

Can these major companies even afford to publish magazines at $2.00 per edition? We just finished hearing that The Daily lost $10 million over the last quarter. Sure, they’re seeing a lot of downloads, but $10 million in losses isn’t exactly something to ignore.

2011 may ship up to be the year that we see how digital publishing plays out in full. The next couple of quarters may be crucial in determining whether or not some of these publications can maintain their interests in the digital world, or if it has become more of an unattainable pipe dream for old media executives.

Article Via Wired

Joshua is the Content Marketing Manager at BuySellAds. He’s also the founder of Macgasm.net. And since all that doesn’t quite give him enough content to wrangle, he’s also a technology journalist in his spare time, with bylines at PCWorld, Macworld and TechHive.