New York Times begins offering in-app iOS subcriptions
updated 03:35 pm EDT, Fri July 1, 2011
Paper long-time resister of Apple terms
The New York Times has updated its iPad and iPhone apps to support in-app subscriptions, reports note. Three options are available: the first is $15 a month, and grants full access to the Times website and iPhone app. $20 covers the website and iPad app, while $35 opens up all digital content.
A week of issues is available for free if a person is willing to submit their name, email address and ZIP code. Going through the Times' site is a better deal however, since there the first four weeks of access can be bought for 99 cents. Web sales eliminate the 30 percent cut Apple normally takes from App Store transactions.
The newspaper has, intentionally or not, long delayed implementing in-app subscriptions. The deadline for compliance with Apple rules in fact expired yesterday, suggesting that the Times may have tried to avoid switching over as long as possible. On June 9th, though, Apple relented on some of its original terms. In-app payment choices must no longer cost the "same price or less" as external ones, and an external option doesn't require an in-app equivalent.
Junior Member
Joined: Jul 2006
Ah.....
Ah, yet another reason not to subscribe to the Grey Lady in addition to her heavy partisan slant. I was glad, however, to see that its non-Apple subscription is a better deal. A lurking FTC investigation probably got Apple to drop their earlier demand that the open-market price and theirs (with a 30% markup) be the same. Developers might want to pursue that line and make those in-app Apple subscriptions very, very pricey.