Feedback needed on Self Improvement Digital Magazine

Not sure if this is the right forum for this or not, moderators please move if necessary.

My partner and I publish a high end digital magazine in the Personal Development - Self Improvement niche.

Past contributors include:

Jack Canfield – author of the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series
Dr. Dorree Lynn – author of “Sex for Grownups…” and “When the Man You Love Is Ill”
Krish Dhanam – Global Ambassador for the Ziglar Group of companies

Contributors that will be featured in the coming months:

Tamara Lowe - Top motivational speaker and founder of "Get Motivated Seminars"
Bob Burg - speaker and author of several books, including the "Go-Giver" series
Joel Osteen - internationally recognized Pastor, speaker, and author

I'm looking for feedback on the magazine itself and the best way to get subscribers.

It is currently available in the iTunes store and on Google Play. Neither of these platforms has a real affiliate program worth talking about, and the costs associated with doing business with them eats up to 50% of the product price. It is also available on the Kindle Fire. We can distribute pdfs of the magazine but we really wanted to take advantage of the 120M Ipads out there.

Some of the thoughts I've had:

1. Hook up with other warriors and allow them to give the magazine away to their list free, monthly, as a perk to their list, just to increase the number of downloads. How would I find other interested warriors? Does a post in the wso forum make sense?

2. Same as one except only give one issue away, and hook them up as an affiliate. Since there is no viable way to this in the iTunes or Google Play world, I would need to set something up in addition. Perhaps getting a receipt from the affiliate for each subscriber. It is possible to give an extra free issue if this would help.

3. Same as two but include a free 1/2 page ad for those affiliates with 50 paid subscibers.

At this point I'm willing to just about give the magazine away (pdf version) just to increase circulation, and to try to sell advertising as the business model.

I would like advice on ways of sweetening the pot. We are open to any and all suggestions.

Thanks for your input.

Tom