Five major print magazine publishers have united to launch Next Issue, an online service that makes every new issue of nearly 40 magazine titles, along with digital bells and whistles like videos and interactive features, available to tablet users for a flat monthly fee.

Consumers sign up and pay for the service at NextIssue.com. Then they are directed to either Apple Inc.’s App Store or Google Inc.’s Play store to download the NextIssue application for the type of tablet they use. Unlimited plans cost $9.99 per month and $14.99 per month. The more expensive plan includes access to magazines that come out weekly, such as Sports Illustrated and The New Yorker. The Next Issue app for Android users launched this spring; the app for iPad users launched this month. The company says it expects to add more titles to the service later this year.

Content comes from Condé Nast, Hearst Corp., Meredith Corp., News Corp. and Time Inc., and subscriptions include access to back issues.

“With the unlimited plans offering access to our entire catalog from a single intuitive app, we’re delivering magazines the way consumers want to read them,” says Morgan Guenther, CEO of Next Issue Media. Guenther should know a thing or two about how consumers want to want to consume media, having been president of TiVo Inc., the digital TV recording service, from 2001 to 2003.