Why Almost Nobody Wants to Pay for the 'Netflix of Magazines'

Millions of people are more than willing to pay for steady access to streaming content. Netflix counts 50 million subscribers to its online video library, and Spotify has 12.5 million listeners ponying up a monthly fee for a massive buffet of music. For magazines, however, the idea of paying a flat fee for unlimited access hasn't caught on.

The idea of banding together into a Netflix of magazines isn't untested, just unpopular. Several major magazine publishers joined forces in 2011 to launch Next Issue Media, a company that charges $15 per month for access to about 140 magazines, or $10 for a more limited selection. Even under the most optimistic assessment, the project has so far only been a decent proof of concept. “No one has heard of us,” acknowledges Morgan Guenther, the company’s chief executive officer. He puts the number of subscribers at "well into the hundreds of thousands."