Apple and Google redefining print subscription business models

First Apple announced they would be allowing you to receive your magazines, newspapers and digital content via Itunes on a subscription basis (at a tidy 30% commission), and now Google has jumped into the digital distribution game.

Here is an article from Mashable talking about Googles participation.

Google Announces New Payment System for Digital Publishers

49 minutes ago by Lauren Indvik 8

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Following the debut of Apple’s new subscription model — and publishers’ subsequent displeasure with the company’s insistence on a 30% revenue cut — Google announced today a new service that allows publishers to have greater control over the prices and terms of their digital content products.

The service, Google One Pass, is an embeddable e-commerce system that allows publishers to sell access to their digital content more or less on their own terms. Publishers can sell subscriptions (including discounted or free access to existing print subscribers), metered or freemium access, or individual articles separately or as a bundle on their websites and mobile apps. Google will also share subscriber information with publishers, something they have long sought from Apple.

Although the service should generate some Google love among publishers, it will do little to help them offer comprehensive, multi-platform digital packages in a mobile app market that is largely dominated by Apple.

One Pass is available to publishers in the U.S., UK, Canada, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Among the list of participating publishers are Bonnier’s Popular Science and German publishers Axel Springer AG, Focus Online and Stern.de.

Google did not disclose what cut of the revenue it would be taking.