Recently, Klout offered a free 60 day trial to Next Issue, I was a little disappointed to not receive the perk while others with lower scores did so when I received an email from a daily deal site for the same trial, I signed up to give it a try.
About Next Issue
I am sure you have seen the advert where the woman climbs out of bed to the big magazine rack to get another magazine, the app lets you do exactly that. You get access to their entire magazine rack, including back issues that go back to 2012 for most of the magazines I have looked at, starting at $9.99 a month.
With Next Issue’s digital magazine rack available for iPad, Android and Windows8, you and your family can enjoy all of the favorites you know and love and discover new magazines that you would not usually read. There are magazines for everyone, sports, cooking, beauty, fashion and more – it is like the Netflix of magazines!
Many Next Issue titles also have bonus content available or are optimized for smaller screens by moving text to bonus pages. Just tap where indicated to open more information, recipes, retail information etc.
My Experience With Next Issue
First, check if Next Issue is available on your device before signing up, as an Android user, I can download he app to my Kobo tablet but not my phone.
One of the most important things for me is that Next Issue has the ability to download twelve magazines to your device for offline reading. Most of my reading is done on the GO train and even tethered to my phone’s data, downloading a magazine while going through tunnels etc often leads to download errors. With Next Issue, I can download at home using wifi and have them available to me when I want to read them.
When you open the app, it will ask you which titles you want to read, these will then be added to your personal magazine rack. Open the title and you will see the available issues for that magazine. Tap and hold an issue and it will download that issue to your device for offline reading (noted with a red pushpin on the magazine). Once read, you can unpin the issue to free up space and download other issues.
Next Issue is not full of never heard of before titles. On the cheapest plan, you get access to over 100 magazines including All recipes, Chatelaine, Cosmopolitan, Every Day With Rachael Ray, ESPN Magazine, Esquire, Flare, GQ, LOULOU, PC Magazine, Parents, Woman’s Day and many more.
Many Next Issue titles also have bonus content or have optimized their pages for tablet reading. Simply tap the image and a new page will open with the text, recipe or retail information. This allows for easier reading on a small screen but can make the magazine feel that it is all advertising so watch for those more content buttons. Chatelaine (pictured right) allows for you to add items to your shopping list!
Scanning through pages seems fairly intuitive: there is a slider on the bottom of the screen that appears if you tap the middle of the page that lets you quickly navigate through an issue or you can just swipe through pages. There’s also a contents icon at the top left that more specifically lists the individual articles and features – way better than trying to find that illusive article in a physical magazine.
I have not always been the biggest magazine reader, I prefer to get immersed in a good book and magazines either feel like work or are my trashy little secret. Next Issue is great as I always have something to read – no more paying $5+ for a magazine at Union station so I have something to read on the train. Plus I can read magazines where just one article catches my eye but I would not pay the cover price of the magazine for it. I think I will still keep the subscription to the three magazines we get (Canadian Living and Chatelaine for me, and a hockey mag for him) as I like the coupons and reading in the tub. I would hate to drop my kobo in water.
Get Next Issue
Next Issue is available for $9.99/month ($14.99 for the extended magazine rack). Click here to order. You will receive a free 30 day trial which you can extend to 60 days with promo code BONUS30. You will need to supply a credit card number for the trial.
hopefully I get my new ipad this year then Im going to sign up for this brilliant idea
I am still hoping to win an ipad – until then, my kobo will have to do
I’m going to see if I can get this on my phone — I wish I had a tablet to take advantage of this app!
Thanks for the review. I assumed that this would be too expensive so I never bothered looking into it but I already spend at least $10/month on magazines so this is not much different and in addition to that I have two magazine subscriptions that pile up around our home so this would be better for the environment as well. 😀
Only thing I wonder is how well recipes would print off of this because that’s the one thing I hate about magazines is how often good recipes are spread out across multiple pages and it’s annoying to try to save anything you want to make again, but if I could print from this I can get a single page with the recipe on it.
I am not sure how well it prints as it is a tablet version, most open in new windows without all the extras and you can screenshot it but some need to scroll
Awesome idea!