The New York Times has announced that its curated news app, NYT Now [Direct Link], will officially shut down and no longer be available to download from the week of August 29. The app was originally announced in early 2014 as a way to provide readers with a cheaper alternative to the digital subscription service offered by the company, coming in at $8 per month, "roughly half the price of the least expensive digital subscription."

NYT Now was said to be an attempt by the New York Times to offset dips in revenue from its traditional printed newspaper circulation. The goal was to present a less expensive subscription model, with news focused and curated for each specific user, and attract people who might not otherwise subscribe due to the ease-of-access inherent in mobile apps. Unfortunately, "the app never quite took off," and NYT Now transitioned to a freemium model last year in an attempt to expand its audience.

nyt now

Kinsey Wilson, the executive vice president for product and technology, said the decision to do away with NYT Now was driven in part by a shift in how the company thinks about broadening its audience. The Times, with the help of its audience development team, now looks more to third-party platforms like Facebook and Twitter to expand its reach among younger readers.

“That gave us a different ability to tap into younger audiences and to provide exposure to a much, much wider audience,” Mr. Wilson said.

The app was said to have peaked in May 2015 with 334,000 total unique users in one month but, in the last three months, it only managed to acquire 257,000 total unique users. Many of NYT Now's features will be folded into the company's main mobile app, NYTimes [Direct Link], "including morning and evening news briefings, bullet-point lists and a more conversational tone."

The editors of NYT Now have written a brief note about the app's shuttering, including the specific locations users can find its various features in other apps. For readers who keep the NYT Now app on their iOS or Android device, it will officially cease being updated in September.

Apps like Apple News, which offer users a wide breadth of news stories from an expansive list of various publishers, are also likely to contribute to a slight loss of subscribers for single-publisher apps. Apple News is even getting a feature in iOS 10 that will support paid subscription models from sites like The Wall Street Journal, curating premium content right alongside free stories from other publishers.

Top Rated Comments

scaredpoet Avatar
119 months ago
Maybe I'm the only one, but I am NOT a fan of having a zillion apps from the same source all doing different things. If a news source wants to keep me as a subscriber, they need to make accessing the news simple and streamlined. Ready access through the news aggregators (Apple News, Flipboard, etc.) and one dedicated app, with the sections I want. That's it!

NY Times currently has 9 iPhone apps and 5 iPad apps ('https://itunes.apple.com/us/developer/the-new-york-times-company/id284862086'), all for content that could probably be served just fine from their main app. Most people, I think, are just just going to install ONE app and call it a day, and anything else will be garnering niches and small numbers at best. So there really shouldn't be any surprise here.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BruiserBear Avatar
119 months ago
Fortunately I do not need any NYTimes apps. I try really hard to limit my exposure to propaganda. While the Times does occasionally have an honest and truthful news story, most times they just repeat political dogma, bias, and propaganda. It will not hurt my feelings if they go bankrupt. Anytime where one political party can do no harm and the other political party can do no right, is the time that know you are reading propaganda. If you pay attention you know that both parties are harming most middle class and lower. No different than the news in a country ruled by a 2-bit dictator.
Let me guess, Fox News is only honest news channel. lol
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Solomani Avatar
119 months ago
I actually like Apple News. It's a good clean model. You choose only the news channels you want (e.g. NYT, Wall Street Journal, CNN, Reuters, ESPN, etc).
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
unobtainium Avatar
119 months ago
People still read the New York Times?
lol wut

NYT is one of the last remaining sources of serious journalism. For example, the entire latest issue of NYT Magazine, which was devoted to the unraveling of the Middle East.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Porco Avatar
119 months ago
'NYT Now' now 'NYT Then'.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
lilabila Avatar
119 months ago
Fortunately I do not need any NYTimes apps. I try really hard to limit my exposure to propaganda. While the Times does occasionally have an honest and truthful news story, most times they just repeat political dogma, bias, and propaganda. It will not hurt my feelings if they go bankrupt. Anytime where one political party can do no harm and the other political party can do no right, is the time that know you are reading propaganda. If you pay attention you know that both parties are harming most middle class and lower. No different than the news in a country ruled by a 2-bit dictator.
What a great response and way to live! It always feels encouraging reading common sense.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iOS 26

Everything New in iOS 26.1 Beta 1

Monday September 22, 2025 12:44 pm PDT by
Apple released the first beta of iOS 26.1 today, just a week after launching iOS 26. iOS 26.1 mainly adds new languages to Apple Intelligence, but there are a few other features that are worth knowing about. New Apple Intelligence Languages Apple Intelligence is now available in Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese (Portugal), Swedish, Turkish, Chinese (Traditional), and Vietnamese. AirPo...
apple tv 4k new orange

Next Apple TV Expected to Launch This Year With These New Features

Monday September 22, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
The next Apple TV is expected to be released later this year, and a handful of new features and changes have been rumored for the device. Below, we recap what to expect from the next Apple TV, according to rumors. Likely Features N1 Chip With Wi-Fi 7 Last year, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said the next Apple TV would be equipped with Apple's own combined Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip, which is...
Apple Intelligence General Feature 2

iOS 26.1 Adds New Apple Intelligence Languages and Expands AirPods Live Translation

Monday September 22, 2025 11:15 am PDT by
With iOS 26.1, Apple Intelligence is gaining support for additional languages, including Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese (Portugal), Swedish, Turkish, Chinese (Traditional), and Vietnamese. Apple announced plans to expand the languages that can be used with Apple Intelligence last year, and now the added language support is here. Apple Intelligence is now available in the following...
Apple Foldable Thumb

Foldable iPhone Like 'Two Titanium iPhone Airs' Joined at the Hinge

Monday September 22, 2025 2:16 am PDT by
Next year's rumored foldable iPhone will showcase an ultra-thin design resembling "two titanium iPhone Airs side-by-side," according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Writing in the Q&A section of his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman says Apple's first foldable device will be "super thin and a design achievement," combining Apple's thinnest iPhone form factor with cutting-edge folding...
iPhone 17 Pro and Air N1 Feature

Some iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone Air Users Experiencing Intermittent Wi-Fi Issue

Monday September 22, 2025 8:44 am PDT by
Apple's latest iPhone models launched on Friday, and some early adopters of the devices are experiencing intermittent Wi-Fi issues. Affected customers say Wi-Fi connectivity periodically cuts out on the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max, and iPhone Air, with hundreds of comments about the issue posted across the MacRumors Forums, Reddit, and the Apple Support Community over the...
iPhone 17 Pro and Air Feature

Two iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone Air Colors Appear to Scratch More Easily

Friday September 19, 2025 10:02 am PDT by
As reported by Bloomberg today, some of the new iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone Air models on display at Apple Stores today are already scratched and scuffed. French blog Consomac also reported on this topic. The scratches appear to be most prominent on models with darker finishes, including the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max in Deep Blue, and the iPhone Air in Space Black. Images Credit: Consoma ...
iPhone 17 Pro USB C Port

iPhone 17 Pro Max's USB-C Charging Speeds Tested With Apple Chargers

Monday September 22, 2025 7:29 am PDT by
The website ChargerLAB has tested the iPhone 17 Pro Max's USB-C charging speeds with a variety of Apple's chargers, from 18W to 140W. The device reached a peak charging speed of around 36W with the following Apple chargers:40W Dynamic Power Adapter with 60W Max 61W USB-C Power Adapter 67W USB-C Power Adapter 70W USB-C Power Adapter 96W USB-C Power Adapter 140W USB-C Power AdapterFor...
iOS 26

Apple Seeds First Betas of iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, and macOS Tahoe 26.1

Monday September 22, 2025 10:05 am PDT by
Apple today provided developers with the first betas of upcoming iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, macOS Tahoe 26.1, tvOS 26.1, watchOS 26.1, and visionOS 26.1 updates for testing purposes. The new betas are the first updates to the iOS, iPadOS, macOS 26, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS releases that came out last week. The new betas can be downloaded from the Settings app on a compatible device by going...