"The model we're following is a lot like cable TV," says Ventresca. Members can change the mix of titles they receive as often as they like, managing their accounts on the web or through email (although there will also be a phone option for late adopters).

Publishers, meanwhile, will receive a fixed dollar payment for each copy delivered to Maghound members. For the time being, they'll be able to report those copies to the industry circulation-auditing bodies as single-copy sales, equivalent to newsstand copies—this even though Maghound copies won't be sold at anything like full price.

Ventresca defends that practice: "You've got real consumers spending real money and making their decisions in a magazine-centric environment," he says. It is, at any rate, a temporary measure until the auditors can amend their rules to create a new circulation category, he adds.

While Maghound has been in development for four years at Time Inc., its roots go back to the late 1990s, when lawsuits by state attorneys general forced sweepstakes companies like Publishers Clearing House and American Family Publishers to severely curtail their activities.

Forced to replace the huge numbers of subscribers they'd been getting from sweepstakes firms, publishers turned to independent contractors to solicit subscriptions. After initial successes, these subscription agents began charging more and more even as they supplied names of increasingly dubious quality and sometimes engaged in fraudulent practices to create the appearance of paying customers where none existed.

Since auditors began cracking down on shady agents in 2004, publishers have been obliged to lean more heavily on "verified"—that is, giveaway—circulation to doctor's offices, hotels, and other public places, as well as subscriptions that retailers hand out as a sales promotion; the number of copies distributed through this channel rose nearly 16 percent in the year's first half.

No wonder publishers have been quick to sign up for Maghound. Ventresca won't say specifically which have enrolled their magazines, but the menu will include 240-plus titles at launch, with dozens more already enrolled.