Read More Continuing on with my magazine coverage, we have the biggest US "music" magazine: Rolling Stone.
Although the magazine had its origin in news and music …
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Don't get me wrong, I'm with you on preferring glossy paper magazines. The fact is, a typical magazine is too expensive and over time you are forced to toss them out. I've done it; I had to throw away four years of magazines when I moved recently.
The digital version offers these benefits: it's usually cheaper (sure, not much, but it'll add up over time) and you get to keep the magazines in your lifetime. Ten years in the future, assuming Zinio will be around, you can still access those magazines you purchased and take a trip down memory lane!
So, why should you use Zinio over, say Apple's Newsstand, you ask? The simple answer is if you decide to use Android or your PC, you can't view those magazines because it only exists on the iOS world. With Zinio, I can read it mostly anywhere, such as Android, iPhone, iPad, Windows 8 smartphones, tablets, laptops and home computers.
How about Zinio over, say, Spin Magazine's flashy app? You do not need an active internet connection to access the magazine you've already downloaded. Once you downloaded the magazine, you can go airplane mode and enjoy it offline. That's not the case with Spin's application, which is one of the reasons why I left this subscription. Ironically, I did notice that Spin is offered on Zinio's service.
ROLLING STONE (Jun 2013)
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The other thing that I liked was the "text only" contents, which clearly display the main features and articles. Pressing the title will automatically take you to the corresponding pages.
Reading the magazine was a pleasure, with crisp images and clean text. As display gets better, I believe it will eventually replace paper versions… even though I'm still not quite ready to let go. If you haven't tried out Zinio, give it a chance. Take a test spin via their free articles section.
Incidentally, if you want to invest in the all-digital format, this may be the way to go: Zinio's Z-Pass. For $5 a month ($60 a year, cheaper than Netflix), you can get three magazines a month. You can pick and choose titles month to month, or you can stick with the subscription model. For magazine lovers who still can't get enough, you can add additional titles for $1.50 each. As of this writing, only about 300 titles are being offered, but I believe they are the more popular titles anyway, so you shouldn't have a problem picking the right titles based on your interests.
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