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Amazon shuts newspaper and magazine subscriptions for Kindle and print

niemanlab.org

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Re: Amazon shuts newspaper and magazine subscriptions for Kindle and print

#2
I am really disappointed by this. These days, I mostly use my (fifth) Kindle when flying on aircraft, and there I mostly read The Economist or The Atlantic.

They don't publish offline media for laptops. I don't own a tablet. My phone battery is precious on trips. I guess I'll just look for paper copies at the terminal again...?

Re: Amazon shuts newspaper and magazine subscriptions for Kindle and print

#3
I had to read the email I got about this several times because it didn't seem to make sense. Hang on, my New York Times subscription is going to end in September and then... that's it? The Kindle is wonderful for reading newspapers on, and now - what? And why? I'm sure that someone has a very good reason for the change. I'm also sure that I've never seen a deprecation so poorly communicated.

Re: Amazon shuts newspaper and magazine subscriptions for Kindle and print

#5
If you have an Overdrive Library subscription, you can try checking its magazine section to see if your library subscribes to the magazine(s) you read.

Locally, my Library has Time, Newsweek, The New Yorker, etc. It used to also have The Economist, but that appears to have recently vanished.

For subscriptions to SFF magazines, try WeightlessBooks which offers subscription to a number of magazines [1]

[1] https://weightlessbooks.com/category/magazine/

Re: Amazon shuts newspaper and magazine subscriptions for Kindle and print

#6

If you have an Overdrive Library subscription, you can try checking its magazine section to see if your library subscribes to the magazine(s) you read. Locally, my Library has Time, Newsweek, The New Yorker, etc. It used to also have The Economist, but that appears to have recently vanished. For subscriptions to SFF magazines, try WeightlessBooks which offers subscription to a number of magazines [1] [1] https://weig…

To my mind a significant part of the value proposition for the Kindle edition is you don't have to do anything and it just gets delivered to the device.

Re: Amazon shuts newspaper and magazine subscriptions for Kindle and print

#9
post #7

Why? This makes no sense. Is it really that difficult for them to maintain?

Kindle in general doesn’t seem to make enough revenue to justify the engineering effort/expense. Its languished as a Bezos passion project and is being killed slowly.

Re: Amazon shuts newspaper and magazine subscriptions for Kindle and print

#10
post #3

I had to read the email I got about this several times because it didn't seem to make sense. Hang on, my New York Times subscription is going to end in September and then... that's it? The Kindle is wonderful for reading newspapers on, and now - what? And why? I'm sure that someone has a very good reason for the change. I'm also sure that I've never seen a deprecation so poorly communicated.

From reading the article and its subsequent links, it sounds like they're trying to transition from a la carte purchases, to an all-in-one Netflix model. It's probably just a power play against publishers - swap to Kindle Unlimited and take a [presumably] smaller cut, or get nothing at all. And I'd expect it to work.
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