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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

#161

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…

That glass display sounds extremely cool. Due to bus scheduling I would always have 20 minutes to kill before some classes and I would definitely have visited that.

I appreciate the reason for the kiosks (decently private, better access for those who need it) but they are competing with my personal laptop.

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

#163

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

9€/month for Platinum, which is the only option with more than 5 RSS feeds, is a bit too much in my opinion.

I think if you could keep it sub-5€/$ you'd get a lot more subscribers.

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

#164

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…

I noticed the same thing re: The Economist through Libby (which I think is still Overdrive but prettier?). I wonder if The Economist is quickly pulling away from public libraries?

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

#165

Hmm, with the changes at Amazon Music (on Sonos at least), this is the first time I've noticed some proper, consistent chipping away at the benefits of an Amazon Prime membership. I jumped ship to Amazon after Google actively prevented me from paying them (!). Time to stop lying to myself and go 100% local.

What was it they changed about Music?

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

#166
post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good luck canceling that subscription.

They have made it easier. It used to be that you had to call, but now you can do it on the web.

I had nine months of chargebacks before I finally got NYT to stop charging me.

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

#167
post #163

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

9€/month for Platinum, which is the only option with more than 5 RSS feeds, is a bit too much in my opinion. I think if you could keep it sub-5€/$ you'd get a lot more subscribers.

Thanks for the suggestion. I gotta admit I’m constantly improving my profile. Your feedback is well noted and I am will work on it soon.

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

#168

I think the reason for the shutdown of the service is that the price customers are actually willing to pay for news has decreased a lot since the web took over it. Nowadays there are so many free or cheap ways to get informed online that paying tens of dollars a month to subscribe to one or two newspapers seems relative expensive. That's why successful outlets like The Economist put so much emphasis into convincing p…

I think not enough is made of the damage caused by aggregators. And I don't just mean like reddit I mean things like The Hill or Huff Po that pay for subscriptions to original reporting and then digest everything they write with a clickbait headline and leech all the ad dollars away from the people who did the hard work.

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

#170

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…

An attention-getting and expensive (but universities seem like they could afford it) could be a giant e-ink version.
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