Comment by tzs | Hacker News Reader

Comment by tzs | Hacker News Reader

I wonder if this is just due to something internal at Google or if there has been some more global change that has made them uninterested in continuing this?

Normally I'd guess the former given Google's legendary propensity for getting rid of services, but a couple months ago Amazon did something similar [1] which makes me wonder if the two are connected somehow:

> Effective September 4, 2023, Amazon is no longer selling print and Kindle, magazine and newspaper subscriptions.

...

> Will I receive the remaining issues for my current Kindle subscription(s)?

> No, you will no longer receive issues of your Kindle subscription(s) after September 4, 2023. We will issue you a pro-rated refund for any undelivered issues within 3-5 business days. Visit the Your Memberships and Subscriptions page for more information.

> Will I receive the remaining issues for my current Print subscription(s)?

> Yes, you will receive all issues of your print subscription through the expiration date. Please visit Your Memberships and Subscriptions page to determine when your Print subscription expires.

Kindle issues you have already received remain available on your account for download.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/arp/B0BWPTCP4K

It's worth noting that sales of this content were shut down in early 2020 and subscriptions were refunded then; this is just the shuttering of the hosting for a service that has not generated revenue in 3 years. The OP links to this article for context: https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/01/03/google-news-killing...

Now, there could be reasons other than cost/technical debt for them to shut this down - perhaps some kind of legal or reputational risk to continuing to host certain content. And perhaps it's the same risk that Amazon identified. But there could be simpler reasons as well.

Something happened. There are a lot of consolidations in the industry, and as content contracts expire and get renegotiated this happens. On September 21:

We regret to inform you that the magazine(s) you received through ZINIO will no longer be available. Please find below a voucher with a value equal to the remaining balance of issues for your subscription(s) to use in a special selection we have created for you based on your interests.

This was in regard to The Economist, which is now available on Pressreader and happens to be free from my Library. So for me cost wise, this is awesome.

I think it's more that print magazines aren't really a thing anymore. Yes, they exist, but if you have a computer you're far more likely to consume publishers' content by going to their site and either generating advertising revenue for them as a free user or subscribing digitally, which gives you (and them) much more flexibility in the types of content you can consume and they can create & share.

The same has been happening in the newspaper industry the past decade.

This is likely the case. We have Apple News but we don’t open any of the magazines. We just read whatever the feed gives us. If Apple were to follow, it would help confirm our hunch.

Yeah I think the whole print format with static pages and monthly or weekly editions doesn't really make sense anymore in the digital age

Print is being shrunk but magazines seem still very active. Still to be seen whether they will succeed in the e-reader transition.

I don't get the strong impression that e-readers are really trying to compete here, though. It seems much more in the _tablet_ space, where colorful photos (and additional interactivity, sometimes) are much closer to the physical experience of a paper magazine.

I think it's just a coincidence. The Kindle team has been gutted with job losses so almost everything non-core is being cut.

This magazine business just never made anyone any money, so it's an obvious thing to cut.

Magazine subscriptions can be a funny business because they can be so much cheaper than buying an issue at the newsstand. Don't know what the economics look like these days. On Amazon (not uniquely) there were an awful lot of often non-obvious auto-renewal magazine subscriptions which doubtless caused Amazon some number of headaches.

I was under the impression that subscriptions are not where the money was ever made. Advertising was it. And to get good advertising money you needed a high circulation. So then, shenanigans around discounted subscriptions and mostly free ones in the trade professional press. And so then the work of auditors who established more reliable audience numbers than the size of the print run or some such. Auditors -> audience size -> advertising money -> profit.

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