
Fee likely for Times's news via iPhone - FluidDjango
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2009/06/24/fee_likely_for_timess_news_via_iphone/
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jgrahamc
I'm ready to pay for access to newspapers via electronic means. If I could get
a Kindle DX in the UK I would buy one and use it for magazine and newspaper
subscriptions. I think it's the perfect way to get access to recent material
like this.

I would prefer to continue buying physical books because I like having them
around the house (except for technical books which have a limited shelf life).
That way I can read them again, give them to people, etc. I like the
serendipity of looking at my bookshelf and rediscovering.

But I don't keep newspapers or magazines. If I need access to their archives
I'll pay for it. If I could subscribe for a reasonable fee on a DX that would
be ideal.

At the US prices for magazines and newspapers I can imagine subscribing to
much more content if I had a DX. But the killer publication for me would be
The Economist.

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tsally
For the skeptics, consider books that are availible free online but sell well
(Practical Common Lisp comes to mind). People are paying for the distribution
method, not the content.

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CalmQuiet
I have real doubts whether this payment model is going to work for Times in
future. As a _consumer_ of their info it is _right now_ a PITA. [ I'm open to
seeing what ease and cost/benefit emerges with future micropayment processes.
]

The conventional wisdom seems to be (becoming) if you start out offering
something for free (as they do now), it's going to go hard for you if you
_begin_ charging.

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wmeredith
I disagree. I've written off the times because of their terrible website
usability (full page ads, pop-ups, attempts at forced registration).

I'm assuming the product in there is good on some level since they have such
brand cachet, but I don't care to deal with getting at because it such a pain.
If they made it an enjoyable user experience, I would probably pay for it
because I know that it is good.

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edave
The NYT's content is generally very good, so I have no argument against paying
a subscriber fee. Their iPhone app is another problem though- it's definitely
the buggiest iPhone app I've used and needs a lot more stability before I'm
willing to pay a subscription for something which crashes 1 out of 3 times I
use it and has blatantly broken features.

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brown9-2
Couldn't iPhone users just go to www.nytimes.com in their phones web browser
and circumvent the fees?

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zimbabwe
They could, but in cases like this ease of access is everything.

