When Apple launched the iPad last year it was heralded as the device that would kill magazines and newspapers as we know them today. But now, a year later with nearly 14 million iPads on the market, there are still relatively few magazines available on the iPad and those that are available are seeing rapid declines in their numbers. The media darling of the iPad magazine world, Wired, saw a drop from 100,000 copies in June to just 23,000 in November, and the story is similar for Glamour, Vanity Fair, and Men’s Health.

For consumers, expectations form an iPad version of a magazine are high. According to a recent article in Advertising Age, consumers expect to see something unique and different on the iPad, something they wouldn’t get by picking up a paper copy of the magazine. Creating a unique experience means an added expense for publishers for a declining audience. However, a recent article in the NY Times stated that the most common reason that magazines on the iPad are given low ratings is for their cost. Readers don’t feel its right that they need to pay cover price for each issue, even if they already subscribe today to a print edition.

For publishers, there were a few hurdles in bringing titles online. For organizations accustomed to the typical model of offering single issues on the newsstand and subscriptions delivered directly to reader, the iPad introduced a new hybrid business model. From the early days Apple talked about adding support for subscriptions, but to-date this is still “in the works”. Recent signs point to Apple rolling this out by June 2011, along with a new iPad newspaper from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. called “The Daily”. Till now, publishers have been forced to sell individual issues for the iPad through the app store or push subscribers through and awkward re-direction to their own site to process subscriptions. Apple has now given publishers till June 30, 2011 to transition over to a model that uses the in-app purchase function for buying content, which means the app store will become the only distribution channel.

Many publishers are fed-up with waiting for Apple and are instead pinning their hopes on alternative tablets and devices, like the Android-driven tablets and the Kindle. Diversifying may seem like a great plan, but Apple’s full-year lead on these devices has given them a pretty substantial install base over other hardware.

Apple’s upcoming subscription model will be beneficial for consumers as it should make it easier and ultimately cheaper for them to gain access to their favorite magazines. However, will it be good for publishers? That is yet to be seen. With Apple taking their cut on annual subscription sales (likely the 30% that they take today) and maintaining control over the user data, publishers are giving up a lot of control.