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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

#211

Post by braunboffel »

Kneecaps07 wrote: post #194
braunboffel wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> low margin monopoly it maintains. Please help me understand what you mean by monopoly. What is exclusive to Amazon? Aren't there competitors like Kobo, Onyx, etc?

A monopoly just means you control the prices of a particular market. Amazon, in my opinion, absolutely has control of the ebook market. If they lower prices, everyone else has to lower theirs to keep up.

> Amazon, in my opinion, absolutely has control of the ebook market. If they lower prices, everyone else has to lower theirs to keep up.

Uhm? Would you like to try explaining that again?

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

#212

Post by ben7799 »

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…

The NYT has held their quality standards up pretty well, but most of the newspaper industry had already raced all the way to the bottom by the time Amazon ever launched the Kindle newsstand.

That ship basically sailed away a long time ago. Newspapers gave everything away for free, raced the content to the bottom, and then after nearly 20 years of that finally realized it didn't work.

The content in your online newspaper needs to be very, very good if you want $20-30/month to read it versus the aggregated news services wanting $9.99/month to read news from a wide swath of sources. NYT is good, but it's terrible at replacing your local news sources.

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

#213

Post by ravel-bar-foo »

SentientAtom wrote: post #142
ravel-bar-foo wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I can't quite pin words on it, but just intuitively it feels like there is less barrier to reading and more of a break from studying when the newspapers are printed and sitting there than when you have to swipe on a screen.

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

#214

Post by ben7799 »

giovannibonetti wrote: post #130

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…

Reader's price expectations had already dropped to $0.00/month before the Kindle newsstand launched.

The newspapers had already set the price to free for about 10-15 years before Amazon launched the Kindle newsstand.

The newspapers for the most part have still never made the online quality as good as the print copy too.

People cannot discount that these papers all put up free editions on the web for a long time and didn't realize the damage till the print subscriptions tanked.

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

#215

Post by bublyboi »

myvoiceismypass wrote: post #198
wrycoder wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try Apple News+

Apple News+ is digital-only. I really enjoy reading magazines, and Amazon had been managing most of my subscriptions until now.

Same, I prefer to unplug and read the physical magazines. Is there a decent alternative service for managing my physical magazine subscriptions?

I have 3 subscriptions that I only have because Amazon makes them easy to manage/renew/cancel

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

#216

Post by dehrmann »

somenameforme wrote: post #10
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.

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.

I've had a Kindle subscription to The Atlantic for a long time. I only look at it from time to time, but the price is low, and I don't feel guilty when I read their website for free. I couldn't quickly find out if they're even on Kindle Unlimited, and I don't read enough to make KU worth it.

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

#217

Post by dehrmann »

damontal wrote: post #121
mdavidn wrote: post #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...?

You can use Calibre to download the Economist each week and send it to your kindle.

Sure, but I wish I didn't have to jump through these hoops.

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

#218

Post by danjoredd »

braunboffel wrote: post #211
Kneecaps07 wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A monopoly just means you control the prices of a particular market. Amazon, in my opinion, absolutely has control of the ebook market. If they lower prices, everyone else has to lower theirs to keep up.

> Amazon, in my opinion, absolutely has control of the ebook market. If they lower prices, everyone else has to lower theirs to keep up. Uhm? Would you like to try explaining that again?

not OP but why would the average person buy a book from example.com for 15 dollars when Amazon sells it for 10? Here or there there might be a person who pays the extra 5 out of principle, but most people are going to buy from Amazon because that's what they know, and its cheaper anyway. In order to make money, other stores are going to need to match Amazon or beat it just to enter the public consciousness a little bit. Thats why Amazon kinda controls the ebook market

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

#219

Post by gnicholas »

rationalist wrote: post #111
gnicholas wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I no longer have USB-A, which is the only USB receptacle I’ve ever seen on a plane.

They make USB-A to USB-C adapters.

True, but if I'm traveling I'm not likely to bring a second phone charger cable just for this, especially because they can't charge as fast as USB-C cables. I bring a USB-C brick for my computer and USB-C to lightning cable for my iPhone.

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

#220

Post by goosedragons »

lasr_velocirptr wrote: post #34
sohkamyung wrote: post #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://weig…

I wasn't able to find any integration with overdrive in Canada when I last tried the kindle. The Kobo's here do work seamlessly with overdrive but only for ebooks though, no magazines or audiobooks

Kindle don't work with overdrive anywhere except for the United States.
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