Giving magazine lovers the ability to buy subscriptions, single issues or back copies of digital magazines is the aim of the bilingual digital newsstand which Magazines Canada launched yesterday. Laurie Alpern, director, communications, Magazines Canada says that the site was created using the $170,000 they received from the Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC). “We got funding from the OMDC last year to do the project,” she says. “We partnered with Zinio to build the digital editions.”

With a launching roster of 114 titles, Alpern says more will be rolling out daily and plans for the future addition of business titles from companies such as Rogers are in the works. In addition to the newsstand being great exposure for all Canadian magazines, she says that the benefits for smaller titles is huge. “For a lot of our smaller titles this is something that first of all they wouldn’t be able to do on their own, they don’t have the funds for it and it’s not on their radar,” she says. “This is something that they can do to test the waters and see if it works for them.”

Check out the site at Magazinescanada.zinio.com.