Zinio Launches iPhone Magazine Portal

Zinio has launched a portal for Apple’s iPhone. Users of the iPhone, and the iPod Touch, can now access free digital editions of magazines such as Men’s Health, Woman’s Day, Popular Mechanics and Playboy.

The platform’s design was developed by Zinio Labs, the company’s research and development division, and appears to be a mostly value-added program.

“We are crafting a revenue model that offers added convenience and content distribution in a way that is a win for our publishers, a win for current customers and a win for future advertising models,” Zinio CEO Rich Maggiotto wrote in an e-mail to FOLIO:. While a number of analysts are forecasting ad and marketing spending on mobile totaling more than 4.7 billion by 2011, “mobile remains a very personal experience for the user, which does not accept pushy marketing approaches,” he wrote.

Zinio Mobile Newsstand is in many ways a research endeavor, launched to “test the waters and understand how consumers interact and feel about engaging on smaller screens,” according to Maggiotto. So far, Maggiotto says feedback has been positive.

Last summer, Texterity launched a magazine interface and portal for the iPhone. Texterity’s portal for the iPod Touch launched in November.

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