The small startup 29th Street Publishing is quietly trying to revolutionize magazine publishing, one app at a time.

The Midtown-based company promises to take the technical wizardry out of app making, easing the pathway to subscription revenue for those with eager—if nonpaying—online audiences.

With clients drawn largely from New York City's deep ranks of freelance writers and independent editors, 29th Street helps develop and maintain simple apps for serialized content. The publishing staff also provides gentle nudges to get new editions out on time.

David Jacobs, Natalie Podrazik and Blake Eskin of 29th Street Publishing. Adrienne Grunwald for The Wall Street Journal

"It's the combination of the publishing industry shrinking, the technology and the New York 'get-it-doneness' right now that's making [this model] possible," said David Jacobs, a company co-founder. The goal, he said, is to help writers and editors "own and communicate directly with their audience. Also to pay writers fairly without compromising the quality of the experience."

Kevin Nguyen, editor of the website Bygone Bureau, has an app among the two dozen in development at 29th Street. He sees a tantalizing promise: generating revenue to pay his writers by mining material already available on his website, which offers essays on technology and the arts. "I used to have a skepticism about repackaging things that have already been published," he said. But part of it is a chance for readers to "support a publication [they] care about."

If the subscription base grows, Mr. Nguyen said he would consider offering articles available exclusively on the Bygone Bureau app.

Asking digital readers to pony up for essays, journalism and poems is no longer a fringe proposition, as major media outlets are embracing digital-subscription models.

Even among bloggers, who have typically published their work free of charge since the rise of the medium, there has been a new push into paid content. One example is Andrew Sullivan, whose new self-published website is supported by $20 annual subscriptions.

For the five apps released so far by 29th Street, Apple's Newsstand service is the sole conduit to readers' iPhones and iPads. That means the technology giant takes a cut of each sale, along with a per-subscriber fee paid to 29th Street that is negotiated with each publisher.

Mr. Jacobs met Natalie Podrazik at the blogging-software company Apperceptive, and the duo launched the 29th Street in 2011. Blake Eskin, former web editor of the New Yorker, joined last year as editorial director.

"The idea was really for us to just start a company with a blank slate and solve a problem from scratch," said Mr. Jacobs.

Mr. Eskin's job is to guide writers and editors through the process of planning and filling a regularly released app, helping assess if there might be a market to produce digital magazines that readers will want to pay for.

"This is [for] people who have to find a way to have the discipline and vision to publish something on a regular basis," Mr. Eskin said. The ideal publisher isn't "writing one very big thing but writing something serial."

The model might not appeal to everyone: "They're going to have to be their own assignment editor...maybe also their own marketing department," he said.

Craig Mod, a print and digital publisher who has written extensively about the challenges and opportunities of app-based models for writers and editors, sees 29th Street as part of phenomenon that will dramatically decrease the costs associated with the medium. But the company's model places a lot of responsibility on the shoulders of writers and editors.

"[Being] sustainable requires a lot of work," Mr. Mod warned. "You can't look for magic bullet solutions."

Finding a way to earn subscription revenue from digital platforms is a matter of survival for writers, said Mr. Eskin.

"Your alternative is a blog and hitting the lottery—the lottery being defined as a book deal, [or] defined as going viral," he said. "It's very hard to scale things in a sustainable way when you are on the web."

Write to Jackie Bischof at