Next Issue Media launches digital newsstand for Android tablet

Next Issue Media, a consortium of five major magazine and newspaper publishers, launched a preview of its digital storefront today with app versions of seven popular magazines. Available publications include The New Yorker, Esquire, Fortune, Time, Fitness, Parents and Popular Mechanics. For now, the publications will be available as single issues or monthly subscriptions to select users of the Samsung Galaxy tablet.

Next Issue, an independent venture formed in 2009 by Hearst, Meredith, Conde Nast, Time Inc. and News Corp., intends to release a variety of magazine and newspaper publications, and the company has plans to sell at least 40 titles by the end of the year, All Things Digital reports. The group plans to expand to more devices in the fall as well. The apps are currently available in a magazines section on Verizon’s VCAST app store.

Publishers will get at least 70 percent of each transaction, and in contrast to their options with Apple, publishers will also get full access to subscriber information through Next Issue.

While the service may give publishers more freedom than Apple, the initial audience will be small. As of today, the magazine apps are only available to a portion of Google Android tablet users: Galaxy owners who also have wireless service from Verizon.