I’ve been a fan of reading magazines on the iPad since I first got one at launch. However, I’m pretty invested in another application that provides them for reading: Zinio. It’s a great app and works pretty well.

Obviously, Apple felt a need to also have a magazine app of their own and developed Newsstand for iOS 5. It’s been out for a month or so now and, to say the least, it appears to be doing well — and not just for Apple.

According to paidContent, Condé Nast recently said its weekly subscription sales for nine of its digital magazines such as Allure, Brides, Glamour, Self, GQ, Golf Digest, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and Wired has increased 268% since the storefront made its debut alongside iOS 5. In addition, sales of single issues has risen 142% in comparison to the eight weeks prior to Apple’s launch of Newsstand.

“Putting all the magazines in one place just makes the most sense, in terms of allowing easy discovery for consumers,” Condé Nast executive vice president Monia Ray told paidContent. “Furthermore, the update from iOS 5 is terrific, especially the background loading.

We have a lot of features embedded in our titles and they take time to load. Background loading helps ease the wait-factor. But for the most part, before, the App Store represented a wide-ranging bazaar. Now, it has clear aisles to make it simple for consumers to browse.”

Have you subscribed to any magazines yet in Apple’s Newsstand? If so, what did you get and how do you like it?

In what can’t really be a surprise development to anyone, the San Jose Mercury News is reporting that Apple is planning “a new subscription plan for newspapers” for their iPad, iPhone and more that will be launched “soon.” No specific sources are used in the article but it claims the service will have a similar pay structure to the one used in Apple’s App Store, with content providers keeping 60% to 70% of the revenue.

According to the article: “The Cupertino company has agreed to provide an opt-in function for subscribers to allow Apple to share with publishers their information, which includes vital data that news organizations use to attract advertisers.”

People already use the iPad and iPhone for reading books, comics and more so this is a natural evolution of the device. In fact, many newspapers and magazines already feature their content on the iPad.

It doesn’t really take much to imagine others who don’t want to go to the expense of developing their own applications, such as done by the New York Times and Wired Magazine,  and would instead adapt to a subscription model that would probably not require as much work on their part.

If true, this report could prove very interesting indeed and I, for one, would probably opt in to a few newspapers myself. What about you?