Extra, extra: Apple is raising its battle cry to become a heavyweight in the digital publishing arena with a new app called Newsstand.
Apple executive Scott Forstall launched it during the keynote of the Cupertino company's Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco.
If Apple has its way, instead of flipping through real magazines at a kiosk, you'll be browsing your favorite titles from your iPhone or iPad.
Newsstand isn't just an icon that sits on your iPhone or iPad, though. It will show you a complete bookshelf view of your favorite newspapers and magazines when tapped.
So the latest cover of The Economist or National Geographic, for example, is available for your perusal before you click to open it. Right now, users have to scroll through or search hundreds of titles available on iTunes to find the content they want and pay for subscriptions, sometimes on an issue-by-issue basis.
Newsstand be part of the new features available in the fall with iOS 5, the next iteration of the company’s mobile operating system for iPhones, iPod touches and iPads.
It's a sign that Apple wants to be the go-to place for mobile news -- and may finally end the company's squabbles with publishers who were complaining about selling subscriptions to digital versions on iTunes.
Among the dozens of global publishers who signed up for Newsstand are the Hearst Corporation, Conde Nast, Disney Worldwide, Europe's Sanoma Media and the New York Times.