Amazon Kindle Fire should get Time Inc. magazines Wednesday
updated 09:05 pm EST, Tue November 15, 2011
Amazon Kindle Fire catches up on SI, Fortune, more
Amazon will fill a conspicuous gap in the Kindle Fire's newsstand Wednesday based on leak. Staff at Time Inc. told AllThingsD that, after negotiations that ran past the Kindle Fire's launch day, the key magazines the publisher has on virtually all tablets will reach Amazon's Android device. Fortune, People, Real Simple, Sports Illustrated, and Time itself would be part of the launch.
The obstacle was supposedly Amazon's usual insistence on controlling pricing whenever possible, which has burned app developers and book publishers after Amazon discounted the releases or even gave them away for free, possibly devaluing their content. Amazon supposedly only needed to reassure Time that it wouldn't drive prices down.
Consumer marketing lead Steve Sachs, in a leaked memo, told staff that the launch would be virtually instant, as the IT team had to "work quickly and nimbly" to get the optimized magazines ready to go.
Although the deal wouldn't be made public until Wednesday, it would catch up in a way that could have left Amazon at a deficit to Barnes & Noble's Nook Tablet. The bookseller already had Time's support from the launch and has been touting a relatively large newsstand as an advantage.



