Flipster

The easy, free way to read magazines that you're probably not using

Image courtesy of Ebsco

I recently wrote about the paper shortage that is making newspapers and magazines more expensive. The cost and inconvenience of a paper magazine have led to its steady decline. Who has time to wait for a magazine to show up at your house? Or the disposable income to pay the inflated newsstand price for a magazine that is mostly filled with ads anyway?

While I still appreciate reading something on the printed page, I have also found a useful way to consume digital magazines. It’s called Flipster and I’m shocked at how few of my friends have heard about it, let alone use it on a regular basis.

What is Flipster?

Image courtesy of Ebsco

Do you know how your local library has a single copy of a given magazine (usually bound in an annoying little clear binder)? Flipster is the digital version of those magazines you can find at your local library! It’s an app that connects to your public library account. You do have one of those, don’t you?

I’m always surprised about how few people take advantage of their local libraries. It’s something that we shouldn’t take for granted. I won’t go off on a rant about it right now, but please support your local libraries! If you don’t have a library card (or just know your card number for digital loans) go do that right now! Remember that libraries are even useful as modern co-working spaces!

You can download Flipster from all the standard places you find your apps. The Apple App store and Google Play both have it. I typically use it on my Pixelbook which runs Android apps. You can use it on your phone or computer, but I’d suggest installing it on a tablet if you want a more accurate magazine reading experience.

The app will ask you to enter your credentials for your public library. Again, obtaining a public library account is totally free. There are no costs associated with reading magazines on the Flipster app, it’s an easy, free way to read magazines.

How does it work?

A real screenshot from my Flipster app

Once you’re logged in, you’ll see a beautiful digital newsstand of magazine covers to choose from. You can scroll by new releases, sort by subject matter, or just see all magazine titles alphabetically. Of course, the layout may change slightly depending on the device you’re using, but on my Android tablet, I see three tabs. Explore, My Shelf, and Read.

These tabs are pretty self-explanatory, but let’s break them down.

Explore is where you’ll search for the magazines you want to read. You can use the search field to find a specific title, or you can browse around until you find one you like.

My Shelf is where you’ll see all of the magazines that you’ve downloaded.

The Read tab is where you’ll read whichever magazine you’ve chosen. It will automatically update to whichever title you were reading when you last opened the app.

It’s all very intuitive. Once you have your magazine loaded up, you can just swipe back and forth on the screen to go forward or backward in the title. It really replicates the feeling of flipping through a paper magazine. I find the dimensions of the Pixelbook (12.3” display) to be particularly satisfying for reading magazines. The solid black bezels give you a bit of space to hold the magazine without phantom page skips. And of course, you can pinch to zoom in if there is something that requires a closer inspection.

Yes, there are a few paper magazines that still make their way to my mailbox each month, but I love the freedom to discover new titles for free using Flipster! There are dozens of magazines that I may never actually purchase, but I’m intrigued enough to give them a quick, free download.

There are even fun things that Flipster does that your paper magazines could never do. Want to see a breakdown of a table of contents for a given title? Flipster can do that! Why flip through dozens of pages (filled with ads) when you can just skip ahead to a specific page number or story that tickles your fancy? It’s more efficient magazine reading!

Flipster even lets you browse a table of contents and skip to specific sections!

Shortcomings

It’s worth noting that you won’t find every magazine under the sun available on Flipster. Like all content platforms, it gets regular additions and subtractions each month. There are some titles that stop publishing new editions to Flipster. You can still view the archives, but you may see that the latest volume is from last month or last year.

For example, I’ve enjoyed seeing the latest version of Runner’s World each month, but Outside Magazine stopped updating in January of this year. It can be a bummer when your favorite titles are removed from the app. But for me personally, I think that discovering new magazines is what makes Flipster so special. The barrier of entry is almost non-existent for reading some new content or dipping your toe into a new area of interest. Is there really any better way to get into a new niche hobby than through the beautiful photos and detailed writing of a magazine?

You’ll also see expiration dates for some titles. Typically, it’s a week after you download the magazine. Think of it as a virtual newsstand time window. You wouldn’t see a magazine on a newsstand indefinitely right? It’s the same logic with Flipster. You can usually just re-download the magazine if you aren’t finished with it after the allotted time has passed. This is just one of those annoying content licensing details but I haven’t found it to be a major hindrance to my reading experience.

Also, the app itself also hasn’t been updated in a while. You’ll experience the occasional freeze-up or crash. I understand that it is displaying large, high-resolution images, but it shouldn’t be the resource hog of an app that it is. If you check out the ratings on the app stores, it scores a mediocre 3 out of 5 stars with plenty of folks complaining about its stability and speed. Yes, I wish it was a better-looking app that ran smoother, but we’re getting free magazines here people, so let’s take what we can get!

Conclusion

So here’s my suggestion to you. This weekend, if you’re looking for something to read, look to Flipster. Take a break from your typical content sources and lose yourself in a good magazine. There is just something special about enjoying a cup of coffee on a weekend morning while perusing a glossy magazine. That feeling is almost 100% replicated even when looking at a tablet screen instead of a piece of paper.

Is anyone already a user of Flipster? Any other good apps for consuming digital magazines?

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Thanks for reading, I’ll see you next week!

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