HP Labs launched a Print On Demand (POD) business just for magazine publishers. While other Print On Demand platforms have existed for over 10 years now, HP Labs have joined the race of the likes of Lulu & Amazon.

At this time though, HP Labs’ Magcloud Print on Demand is available to publishers only on invitation. But hopefully once they get through the Beta phase, they would be opening up the platform to all publishers.

HP Labs’ Magcloud custom prints magazines on demand thereby eliminating the upfront expenses for printing periodicals. All magazines printed from HP Labs’ Magcloud will be available from the publisher’s website. MagCloud enables you to publish your own magazines. All you have to do is upload a PDF and Magcloud will take care of the rest - printing, mailing, subscription management etc.

The company says that Magcloud will offer commercial quality production of brilliant full color magazines on 80lb paper with saddle-stitched covers. The publisher needs to perform the usual 4 steps:

• Create your PDF using the authoring tools of your choice
• Create your magazine on MagCloud; create a new issue; upload your PDF
• Order a printed proof — verify your magazine before publishing!
• Set your markup and publish your issue

If you have published before, you would know that Print on Demand printing companies make money on the first verifiable sample & on any other sale that happens from their websites. Other competitors like Lulu & Amazon often take a sales commission of over 30% on the mark-up price for sales through their website.

Magcloud will offer a custom URL for every registered publisher (http://username.magcloud.com) where the publisher could display & sell their magazines.

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