Fired up the New York Times Reader today, to be greeted by a message:<\/p>\n
\nThis note is to let you know that the beta period will be ending in two weeks. Times Reader will launch as a subscription service on March 27. It will cost $14.95 a month or $165 a year.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Times Reader, you will recall, is a fantastic WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) application for reading online content. It works offline and nicely demonstrates how rich Internet applications can improve on web browsers.<\/p>\n
In one sense I have no quibble with the price. I believe journalism is worth paying for; and $15.00 a month is not excessive.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately it’s not good value for me, nor I suspect for many others who have tried the beta. For starters, I’m in the UK which makes much of what is in the NYT of less interest. Second, I have access to a ton of free content – starting perhaps with bbc.co.uk<\/a> along with innumerable blogs – and I don’t have time to read as much of that as I would like. The subscription model makes no sense for this kind of general content.<\/p>\n
The NYT would do better to continue providing free Reader content. Give subscribers some extras like premium content, or earlier access to articles, or less intrusive advertising.<\/p>\n
I understand the pressures though. It’s an unsolved problem.<\/p>\n
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Technorati tags: nytimes<\/a>, times reader<\/a>, wpf<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fired up the New York Times Reader today, to be greeted by a message: This note is to let you know that the beta period will be ending in two weeks. Times Reader will launch as a subscription service on March 27. It will cost $14.95 a month or $165 a year. Times Reader, you … Continue reading Farewell to the Times Reader<\/span>