Some publishers gain high profit from selling access to their archives.

The digital magazine specialist claims that sales of archive subscriptions are soaring.

An increasing number of magazines are making their archives available digitally, including Opera magazine which last month made over 800 issues dating back to 1950 available via Exact Editions.

Other titles working with Exact Editions include: Gramophone, The Literary Review, Hali, Prospect, Dazed & Confused, The Numismatist, When Saturday Comes, The World of Fine Wine and Resurgence.

An archive subscription can cost a university around £800 per year.

Exact Editions managing director, Daryl Rayner, said: “A large proportion of our partners’ magazines are earning more from institutional subscriptions than they are from app sales in iTunes. It is an important market, not to be neglected.”