New York Times Offers In-App Subscriptions - MacRumors
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New York Times Offers In-App Subscriptions

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The New York Times has begun offering digital subscriptions via Apple's in-app subscription feature. The subscription offering puts the Times app in compliance with Apple's revised in-app subscription guidelines. The Times rolled out its digital subscription offerings earlier this year, but they couldn't be purchased directly in an app until today.

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The Times is now the highest profile app to work with Apple's requirements surrounding subscriptions. Current NYT subscribers can login and access their content, and non-subscribers can quickly sign up using their iTunes accounts.

For new users signing up through the app, the Times is charging $14.99/month for NYTimes.com + iPhone App access, $19.99 for website + iPad, and $34.99/month for website + iPhone + iPad. Apple will receive a 30% cut of these subscriptions.

These prices are similar to those offered via the Times website, though NYTimes.com offers a $0.99 promotional price for the first month. In-App subscribers will receive a week-long subscription for free if they share their name, email address and ZIP code with the Times.

Though the deadline for compliance with the new In-App Subscription guidelines came and went yesterday, Apple is reportedly helping developers update their apps to work within the guidelines and allowing some additional time for them to come into compliance.

Top Rated Comments

P
PDE
193 months ago
I don't get the NYT pricing. I mean, they could go after a huge market and yet they choose to overprice and limit themselves to a small, but affluent market.

By contrast, I subscribe to the UK's Guardian app for 4 pounds/year and get superb content. Of course, the Guardian still has a free website too.

Crazy to make customers pay for each device they access information on. Why not just limit how many devices you can use at any given time? Well, actually we know why: because they want more money.

I used to read the NYT daily, but because of this I've pretty much stopped.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
aawil Avatar
aawil
193 months ago
Pretty difficult to justify spending that much every month for news I can get somewhere else for free.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Fuchal Avatar
Fuchal
193 months ago
$15 additional to access on your iPhone? What a crock
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
C
Chaos215bar2
193 months ago
So they want me to pay 75% more if I happen to have an iPhone and iPad and want to use my subscription on both?! How can they possibly justify charging as much as the iPhone + web subscription just to add iPhone access to the iPad + web subscription?
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
C
cozmot
193 months ago
Delusional pricing

The App store issue aside, the Times' pricing scheme, unveiled this spring, is delusional. You will pay more to access the paper's content on your browser, iPad and iPhone than getting a daily paper subscription. Check out the comparison chart at http://read.bi/mJnnDZ. It is this, and not Apple getting a slice of the pie that will make them fail. There aren't enough fools out there to pay these ridiculous prices to sustain the model.

I would have gladly subscribed to a more reasonable pricing scheme, but the Time's has shown that just like most of the old news media, they've got their heads stuck in the past.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
K
KALLT
193 months ago
I think that the NYT could do much better. A subscription of the paper version of the IHT costs in Europe at around € 35 per month and includes website access. I would have to pay the same amount just to get access on an iPhone and iPad. I do not understand why they just don't offer one reasonable, flat price for any online content, regardless from which device I read it.

The iPhone app of the Guardian, for example, offers a 6-months subscription for just € 3,99. There is no iPad version yet, but the price for the iPhone subscription alone speaks for itself. The price does not have to be that low, but certainly not too high either.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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