jordanpower
If you like it, awesome. If not, that's cool.
It's unlimited newspapers AND magazines. 7,000 of them. You can create 'playlists' and set auto downloads.
And every time you read something, the publisher gets paid a royalty.
But Hercules lives! Sort of. PressReader (disclaimer, I work there) is doing exactly this. Think Texture, except way more content. We have more than 7,000 titles right now. About half are newspapers.
You're absolutely right about the US news brands, though. They've got some good things going on their own already. But, we're working at it. This month, we added Variety, Robb Report, and a bunch of Meredith titles (mostly newspapers).
I'm loving this thread, though, you guys. It shows there's a serious interest for what we've got going on at PressReader. Awesome, awesome.
But, what about when a reader doesn't really know which author they like. What if they just read the entertainment section of one newspaper, fun stories from some other magazine, and whatever's dominating the news cycle from that national paper somewhere else?
It took some doing, and we definitely had resistance at first, but we have more than 7,000 newspapers and magazines now. And more every week.
Where we've really found success is taking the time to build strong relationships with the publishers. I totally get that they don't want a Spotify-like service to eat at their regular subscribers.
So - part of our benefit to them, is the way we let big brands buy access for their customers. That way, newspapers can reach hotel guests, airline passengers, people like that, that they couldn't before.
Whatever product you build, you have to consider BOTH the reader and the publishers.