July 11, 2013

The New York Times has launched an application for Amazon’s Kindle Fire that gives free access to all content for the month of July.

The publisher’s app gives readers access to each of the Times sections of reports, information and opinion, including videos, blogs, slide shows and interactive graphics. Until July 31st, readers can have free access to this material; thereafter, non-subscribers can have access to 3 articles an afternoon.

“As element of our NYT Everywhere strategy, we’re continuing our effort to increase the user experience across a considerable number of platforms to succeed in readers where they need to access our journalism,” said Kate Harris, mobile product manager on the Ny Times, Manhattan.

“We see the growing approval for the platform, and know that an important collection of Americans own a tablet device, with a lot of them owning a Kindle Fire device specifically,” she said.

“We have a robust and successful relationship with Amazon as evidenced by our success with our existing Kindle edition, and we glance forward to building upon these relationships and reaching new readers.”

The Kindle experience
On the Kindle Fire, Times subscribers with Web + Tablet and All Digital Access digital subscriptions can have unlimited access to each of the articles at the app. These subscribers may also have access to The brand new York Times Kindle edition, a representation of the daily newspaper.

The app can even allow non-subscribers to enroll in the days using their Amazon.com account.

Readers would be in a position to read offline and save articles cross-platform. They may even be in a position to share articles via social media and email.

All readers can have unlimited access to the Kindle Fire app through July 31

Additionally, readers can use the text-to-speak feature, which reads articles and blogs out loud. The Android’s speech-to-text feature also allows readers to dictate comments on articles.

The app comes in the Amazon Appstore at no cost download. After July 31st, users should enroll in access greater than three articles an afternoon.

Readers who purchase a brand new York Times digital subscription through Amazon gets full access to the Kindle app at no additional charge.

A screenshot of the app’s news page

Limited content
For the 1st month, readers can have unlimited access to the app’s content.

According to Ms. Harris, this provides The days the danger to introduce the app to a brand new base of consumers and provides them the chance to experience the app.

On August 1st, however, readers should sign up for access greater than three articles an afternoon.

The Times recently rolled out a meter model across all of its mobile apps to align the mobile experience with that on the internet. The meter lets readers pick which three articles they need to read in an afternoon (see story).

Additionally, The Times’ research shows that many users only read headlines and article summaries. Only some non-subscribers actually read greater than three full articles in an afternoon, so the meter model might not even have that significant of an impact on readers.

A screenshot of a picture gallery at the app

Mobile papers
The Times currently is on the market on iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Android, Windows 8 and BlackBerry 10 devices.

Other newspapers have similarly made their content accessible on mobile.

For example, the Boston Globe recently released a brand new iPhone app (see story).

Similarly, The Guardian only in the near past updated its Android app with new swiping features and advertising opportunities (see story).

BuzzFeed also updated its app to permit users to customise their story feed (see story).

“Mobile is still an important component to our corporate strategy,” Ms. Harris said. “We know that our users are very active on mobile devices, and we would like them with the intention to access our greatest-in-class journalism at the platforms and devices they use.”

Final Take
Rebecca Borison is editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York