[Michlib-l] Flipster

[Jim Flury]

All,

TLN has been talking to EBSCO regarding possible statewide and/or library cooperative pricing for their new eMagazine product, Flipster. EBSCO has indicated that for the foreseeable future, orders for Flipster titles will be priced on a library by library basis, according to the library's population served. That said, here is some general information regarding pricing (and more) for Flipster, taken from an actual price quote for a Class 4 public library in Michigan with a population served of 32,000:

1. The Flipster pricing model differs from Zinio in that there is no access fee. Flipster titles can be purchased on an individual basis, as many or as few as you like. For this Class 4 library with a pop served of 32,000 prices ranged from a per-title low of $7.47 for Soundings, to a high of $2,309.85 for Consumer Reports (ouch). I added the prices for 96 of the 97 available Flipster titles, throwing out Consumer Reports on account its price would skew the results, and divided the total by 96. This gave an average price of $80.91 per Flipster title. Remember, your results will vary, unless you are a Class 4 public library with a population served of 32,000. 

2. I compared a few prices for 10 popular titles that are available for purchase from both vendors. Prices were taken from the quote for the Class 4 library in the case of Flipster, and from the master pricing spreadsheet for Zinio. The results were as follows:

Newsweek:           Zinio, $74.97.              Flipster, $250.00
Oxygen:             Zinio, $74.97.              Flipster, $62.42
Cosmopolitan:       Zinio, $149.97              Flipster, $149.93
O, Oprah Magazine:  Zinio, $59.97               Flipster, $149.93
Car and Driver:     Zinio, $59.97               Flipster, $149.93
New Old House:      Zinio, $41.94               Flipster, $17.48
US Weekly:          Zinio, $209.85              Flipster, $174.88
Women's Health:     Zinio, $75.00               Flipster, $49.98
Rolling Stone:      Zinio, $89.95               Flipster, $74.88
Popular Mechanics:  Zinio, $59.97               Flipster, $149.93


Keep in mind that on account the differing pricing models, and differing caps (or not), that the above is not a strict apples to apples comparison. Rather, more like apples to pomegranates? Or, as a very wise uncle of mine would have said, the above pricing info and a quarter will buy you a cup of coffee (obviously my uncle's era pre-dated that of Starbucks and its prices for a cup of coffee).

3. As noted, Flipster currently offers a total of 97 titles. While this may not sound like very many when compared to the nearly 2,000 titles offered by Zinio, keep in mind that a large percentage of Zinio's available titles are published in the UK, New Zealand, Mexico, South Africa, etc and thus would be of interest only to the largest public libraries in the United States. In contrast, all 97 Flipster titles would be potential "buys" in any public library. For some perspective, TLN's shared Zinio collection https://www.rbdigital.com/thelibrarynetworkmi/service/zinio/landing contains 239 titles.

4. The Flipster model also differs from Zinio in that while the majority of currently available Flipster titles offer an unlimited number of simultaneous users, other Flipster titles have a "cap" on the number of simultaneous users of either 500 or 50. Of the 97 currently available Flipster titles, 65 are unlimited, simultaneous use, while 32 have a "cap" of either 500 or 50 simultaneous users. Zinio recently converted its model from one of unlimited use, to one featuring per issue, annual circulation caps that vary by title. The most prevalent per issue circ "cap" number for Zinio is 2,500, although some titles, such as The Economist, have a much lower per issue annual circulation cap.

To summarize, Flipster could be a good choice for libraries that want to try offering individual eMagazines to patrons, but don't want or can't afford, an access fee and/or aren't part of a cooperative group that shares the content fee. If Flipster keeps adding new titles at a rapid rate, it could potentially provide some price negotiation leverage to use when talking to Zinio, in the form of competition. There is a great deal of overlap in terms of the selection of available titles, although Consumer Reports is an EBSCO exclusive title these days. Flipster also offers some other library popular titles, such as National Review, that are not available from Zinio.

Please contact either EBSCO sales rep Matthew Antonucci email mantonucci at ebsco.com or myself if you would like more information about Flipster.

Thanks.

Jim

Jim Flury
Technical Services Manager
The Library Network
41365 Vincenti Court 
Novi, MI 48375
248-536-3100 x133 
Fax 248-536-3098 
jflury at tln.lib.mi.us