The rollout, reported Friday in The New York Post, is a surprising move amid an ongoing, years-long slump in newsstand sales. Magazines' single-copy sales in the second half of last year fell 8% from the second half a year earlier, according to the Alliance for Audited Media, with double-digit declines at In Touch, sibling Life & Style, Time Inc.'s People and Wenner Media's Us Weekly.
But Bauer, which has always emphasized newsstands over the subscription business that comprises the focus at most U.S. publishers, remains committed to newsstands.