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Amazon shuts newspaper and magazine subscriptions for Kindle and print

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

#141

Post by Illniyar »

NiloCK wrote: post #139

Almost every day there is a front page story on HN about some service shutting down, some account being locked without recourse, some purchased (licensed) media being clawed back from its owner (user) because the usage no longer serves the interests of the platform (or, is no longer estimated to be an optimal service of the platform's interests). But at the same time the overwhelming sentiment here (I know - pluralit…

No one is saying that decentralized compute platforms are a problem.

Torrents, IPFS, seti.home etc... were quite popular.

It's blockchain that is the problem. It is the inherent massive massive waste and inefficiencies in that technology that prompts everyone to say that there are more efficent ways to do it, and in the end something that can do the same thing more efficiently is better.

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

#142

Post by SentientAtom »

ravel-bar-foo wrote: post #80
cygnus2512 wrote: post #77

Back in 2015, I had a opportunity to work with a group of volunteers (non-profit organization that focused on community development in rural areas of Africa) and started using Kindles loaded with newspapers and magazines from the Kindle Newsstand as part of an education program. The whole group would visit villages and set up reading stations with the Kindles. That program over time, became so successful that it attr…

Around 2013 our university digitized their newspaper displays. Prior to the renovation, newspapers were posted daily in large vertical glass-covered display cases in the student lounge of the library (the library would buy and post two copies so all pages were face up). Tens of students at a time would slowly walk down the row of newspapers reading during their study breaks and quietly chatting while sipping on coffe…

Seems there is a psychological effect at play. I imagine a social ritual of standing and reading something that is always in-focus requiring no scrolling is far more appealing.

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

#144

Post by ncphil »

longnguyen wrote: post #114

Shameless plug: I build a tool to forward RSS feeds and newsletters to Kindle automatically[0]. While it could not replace the official periodicals, it works pretty well for my personal reading workflow. Consider giving it a try if you’re looking for an alternative. [0]: https://ktool.io

When Kindle first came out my kids were just starting to get into reading more, so I wrote a perl script to poll various RSS feed that emailed their own personalized "newsletter" to the Kindle for each of them. It was a fun project, but I don't think they paid it much attention. Eventually the feeds I was using all went defunct or threw so many errors I abandoned it.

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

#145

Post by lancesells »

NiloCK wrote: post #139

Almost every day there is a front page story on HN about some service shutting down, some account being locked without recourse, some purchased (licensed) media being clawed back from its owner (user) because the usage no longer serves the interests of the platform (or, is no longer estimated to be an optimal service of the platform's interests). But at the same time the overwhelming sentiment here (I know - pluralit…

I don't agree with this. web3 does nothing to be the size of a big box store (amazon, wal-mart, etc.) or creating the hardware to read it on, or having publishers sign up for it, or any of the marketing that goes along with it.

An drm-free .epub file is all someone needs for this to be solved. It's overkill to have some immutable record running until eternity for those that purchased People magazine.

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

#146

Post by ncphil »

I subscribed to the NYT and a few magazines like The Atlantic when Kindle originally launched and really enjoyed the experience, but got out of the habit of reading them and dropped those subs long before prices went up. It was "too good to be true" from the beginning, and I think the knowledge it would just become another money pit contributed to my losing interest. Sort of like how that old Saab with its overheating engine helped me get over the allure of car ownership.

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

#147

Post by SentientAtom »

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #21
mrwh wrote: 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.

Amazon doesn't want you to have a subscription to the New York Times. Amazon wants you to have a subscription to Amazon Unlimited, which would include access to the New York Times. Amazon would then pay the New York Times and all other periodicals an amount that Amazon thinks is fair based on how many people are reading their articles, like Amazon Unlimited books. This is very bad for big periodicals with many subscr…

Horrific to see another business model get put on rails resulting in a lowering of quality. Reminds me of MSN firing their news team and having AI journalists write all the articles. Now you get large walls of text with no overall message that often times are devoid of any conclusions.

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

#148

Post by criddell »

jzb wrote: post #122
criddell wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The DeDRM tools don’t work with lots of new books from Amazon. The days of easily stripped DRM on Amazon books seems to be coming to an end.

If you have an older Kindle, you can download the older format, I believe. I still have a Kindle DX for this.

True but it’s not ideal. You lose the typographic improvements that you get in the newer format. Still, it’s better than nothing and I’ve read that some people have purchased a used, older Kindle just to get access to the older file format.

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

#150

Post by mabbo »

There's something to be said for today's business model that much of big tech uses: "First we build it, then we get customers who love it, then we try to figure out how to monetize it- and kill it if we don't".

Google is, of course, the king of this model, but it feels as though the entire industry fully embraces it. I'm waiting for the day my Alexa shuts itself off forever because I still don't see how it makes a dime.

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