In a move to increase distribution, LeKiosk has announced this week a partnership with Internet Service Provider and Mobile Telecom SFR, who will offer the Digital Magazine Service to its 2 Million subscribers for free. The partnership is similar to that of Deezer’s with Orange, and will be included in a list of offers like GPS service Coyote, music-subscription service Napster, and video subscription service CanalPlay.
Founded by Michael Philippe & Robin Sabban in 2007, LeKiosk revamped its layout earlier this year, and has made its intentions clear that they want to go head-to-head with Google News & Flipboard. Their model allows users to skim through any magazine, and then subscribe to up 10 magazines of their choice for 10€/month. The model itself is similar to Deezer & Netflix, and thus, has had similar pushback from the publishing industry that other services have had in their sector; nonetheless, LeKiosk is not new to the market, and while the large daily journals (LesEchos, LeFigaro, LeMonde, etc.) have not gotten on board, LeKiosk includes most popular magazines and newspapers that you would find in a Kiosk. The service currently available in the US, UK, Italy, Australia, France & Germany.
More interestingly, this is a big move for SFR, acquired by Numericable earlier this year, which previously had chosen to develop its own solution, SFR Presse. The move to partner with a startup shows a change in ideology within SFR, but also perhaps within large companies in France as a whole.