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Source: Publishers Are Shelling Out More Than $50K For The New York Times' iPad/iPhone App Platform

On August 2, The New York Times announced it is launching a new platform called Press Engine that other publishers can use to create their own iPhone and iPad apps based on templates developed by The Times.

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Publishers who sign on will benefit from a new advertising revenue stream, and The Times benefits from a one-time licensing fee and a monthly maintenance fee from each of the participating media companies.

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We hear from a source familiar with talks one publisher had with The Times that the licensing fee for Press Engine is in the ballpark of $50,000, and that the monthly maintenance fee is a bit under $1,500, though a Times spokesperson told us that the maintenance fee varies based on the size of the publisher's audience and "other variables," such as how many apps a publisher buys.

The licensing fee is a flat fee, the spokesperson said, adding: "We are not going into specifics about clients' costs."

According to The Times' press release:

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The Telegraph Media Group and A.H. Belo Corporation-owned The Dallas Morning News, The Providence Journal and The Press-Enterprise are the first publishers to license Press Engine. Several New York Times Company-owned newspapers, including the International Herald Tribune, The Gainesville Sun and The Lakeland Ledger, will also participate in the product launch.

Reached by phone, Dallas Morning News President and General Manager John McKeon, who was quoted in the release, declined to comment on how much the paper was paying for Press Engine. Attempts to reach executives at The Providence Journal and Press-Enterprise were unsuccessful.

We asked The Times if any additional publishers had signed on:

News Services has received a great amount of excitement and interest from publishers since we announced Press Engine last week. We are having in-depth discussions with several publishers who have responded well to both the business model and the design of the application framework.

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The first Press Engine apps are expected to be rolled out in the fourth quarter of 2010.

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