Is 'Netflix-for-magazines' app Next Issue worth the money?

The Next Issue app may seem pricey, but if you subscribe to a lot of magazines (or want to), it's a bargain.

(Credit: Next Issue)

I'm a magazine junkie. I grew up reading titles like Games, Omni, and Starlog, then moved on to every computer magazine I could get my hands on. (Show of hands: Who remembers Amiga World? PC/Computing?)

Eventually I started writing for them, and even went so far as to start my own magazine: Tap, a PalmPilot enthusiast rag that later became Handheld Computing. Good times.

Needless to say, it was with great interest that I learned of Next Issue, a Netflix-style magazine service that's now available for Android and iPad.

Although a growing number of magazines offer their own tablet editions, and services like Zinio have been serving up digital editions for a couple years, Next Issue is the first flat-rate subscription service.

By paying a flat monthly fee, you get access to every magazine in Next Issue's collection -- which currently counts nearly 40 titles. And not oddball trade pubs few people want to read, but mainstream periodicals like Better Homes and Gardens, Car and Driver, Money, and Sports Illustrated.

But here's the key question: is Next Issue a good value? Answer: it depends. Let's crunch the numbers.

A Basic subscription, ... [Read more]