Robb Report leads the pack with Kindle Fire subscriptions

Luxury lifestyle magazine Robb Report is taking its mobile edition one step further and beating out competitors by becoming one of the first luxury publications to allow subscribers to read the magazine on the new Kindle Fire tablet.

The magazine’s latest Ultimate Gift-themed December issue is now available for download in Amazon’s Kindle e-store in addition to the iPad. The latest Robb Report issue features holiday gifts from luxury brands such as Bentley and Louis Vuitton and a customized Boeing Dreamliner private jet.

“Robb Report recognizes that our audience is very tech-savvy and they want to be able to access their favorite content in multiple ways and on multiple devises,” said John Anderson, Los Angeles-based vice president of digital at CurtCo Media, publisher of Robb Report.

“The Kindle Fire represents one of the newest platforms for digital material and it is expected to have wide acceptance because of the functionality built into the device,” he said. “For this reason, Robb Report wanted to be one of the first publishers in the luxury market to embrace this format.”

CurtCo Media owns Robb Report.

Robb Report’s average readers have an annual household income of $554,192 and an average household networth of $2,015,455.

Trail blazer
Singular issues of Robb Report will be available for download in Amazon’s Kindle store for $7.95.

Additionally, Robb Report readers can buy a monthly subscription where their Amazon account is billed $4.25 per month until they choose to unsubscribe.

Indeed, the magazine has been making a lot of effort to engage with fans and offer its products on all platforms.

Robb Report recently made its iPad edition available in a yearly subscription format for $49.99 (see story).

Prior to this, digital editions were available in Apple’s App Store for $7.99 per issue or print subscribers could enter their subscription number and download the digital edition for free.

The lifestyle magazine has also made its digital edition available in the Apple Newsstand for its readers using iOS 5 (see story).

Consumers can also access Robb Report content on the Zinio and Nook platforms.

Indeed, the title is not just offering a digital magazine, but it has been taking full advantage of the devices’ abilities.

For example, Robb Report magazine’s October iPad issue was the first time that every advertisement had some type of interactive feature to further engage readers with brands such as Audi, Mr. Porter and cover star Aston Martin (see story).

High-flying gifts
The December issue, both in print and digital formats, is themed around 21 Ultimate Gifts for the holidays.

Luxury brands and services comprise the entirety of the list.

For example, the first gift is the made-to-order 2012 Bentley Continental GTC convertible, which starts at $3.36 million.

In line with the auto theme, the following ultimate gift is a 6,000 sq. ft. seven-car garage designed by Guy Dreier, which also features a wine room, home theater and a roof-top terrace. The garage costs $7 million.

Additionally, Louis Vuitton’s Tambour Minute Repeater watch, a three-night stay in Switzerland for two, a tour of the Louis Vuitton watchmaking workshop and a personal consultation with Benoit-Louis Vuitton is one gift on the list. The experience starts at $375,000.

Also on the list is a Boeing 787 Dreamliner VIP jumbo jet with a customer interior design and exterior paint scheme, which costs about $260 million.

Full-page luxury brand advertisements are also present throughout the magazine.

For example, watchmaker and jewelry brands such as Breguet, Chanel, David Yurman, Richard Mille, Audemars Piguet and Girard-Perregaux can all be found in the front of the book.

Additionally, luxury travel players such as The Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas, The Plaza Hotel in New York, Flight Options private jets and the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group are also present in ads at the beginning of the magazine.

Some of the ads in the print edition are also found in the digital edition, where they are interactive.

For example, whiskey label Johnny Walker’s ad is a simple photo and text in the print edition, but its digital ad feature links that direct readers to Johnny Walker’s Web site.

The digital edition also contains some advertisers who are not found in this month’s print issue.

Indeed, Audi has a seven-page spread in the digital edition that is complete with videos and additional photos to engage consumers.

Robb Report plans to continually increase the amount of interactive content available to readers on the Kindle Fire.

“The most unique aspect of the Kindle Fire is its association with Amazon, the world's largest source of digital content,” Mr. Anderson said.

“Over the next few months, Robb Report will include additional interactivity in its Kindle Fire edition such as the interactive table of contents to make this edition even more interesting to our readers,” he said.

Final Take
Kayla Hutzler, editorial assistant on Luxury Daily, New York