The forces that have made 2008 such a miserable year for newspapers have so far been kinder to the magazine industry. With their big photographs, glossy paper, more deeply reported articles, and less time-sensitive subject matter, magazines generally have been less vulnerable to the internet's pull on consumers—and thus advertisers.

Indeed, newspaper publishers from News Corp. to the Washington Post Co. are starting glossy supplements of their own in hopes of replacing dwindling revenue from classified listings with cash from lucrative display ads.

That doesn't mean everything's hunky-dory in magazine land—as the circulation figures released earlier this week show. Across the industry, newsstand sales were down a startling 6.3 percent, a loss that had to be replaced with expensive giveaway copies. And while there's some debate over how much of the shift is cyclical and how much secular, it's clear that at least some readers are turning away from magazines.

It's against this backdrop that Time Inc.—the Time Warner division responsible for its namesake newsweekly and 125 other magazines, including InStyle, Real Simple, Money, and Golf Magazine—is preparing a major industrywide initiative that just might point the way forward for publishers.

In mid- to late-September, it will unveil Maghound, a new membership service that will allow consumers to pay one price for a flexible mix of monthly magazines.

"Look at TiVo, iTunes, Netflix," Dave Ventresca, president of Maghound Enterprises, says. "They have raised consumer expectations of how much control they should have over their media choices. We haven't seen that kind of innovation in the magazine space. Sending seven or eight renewal notices in the mail and saying 'Time to write a check'—that seems like an antiquated way to do things."

From the consumer's perspective, Maghound will work like this: You choose how many magazines you want to receive each month—three for $4.95, five for $7.95, seven for $9.95, and a dollar each above that. All issues published by those magazines will be sent to you that month.

(Time Inc.'s iconic weeklies—including Time, People, and Sports Illustrated—are also available through Maghound, but because of their increased frequency they will cost more.)