News.me Is Finally Free, But... (Updated)
September 15, 2011
One of the more interesting news-generating apps for iPad, News.me, has ditched its subscription fee and is now available for free. The decision to remove the paywall was announced via a post on the News.me blog. While this news is good for iPad owners, we're wondering if the move is ultimately one of desperation.
The News.me app is the creation of betaworks and The New York Times Company. Its primary focus is to provide access to articles “being read and discussed on Twitter among friends, noted technologists and early-adopters from the Web.”
When the app arrived last April, we liked the concept, but weren’t convinced it was worth $34.99 for a one-year subscription (or $.99 per week). As such, after one month, we unsubscribed to the service, and found free content elsewhere. The problem from the beginning, for us anyway, was that at its core, News.me simply identifies articles being discussed by others via Twitter. Subsequently, we saw no reason to buy an app to do this, when we could do the same elsewhere for free.
Today’s development eliminates the paywall and most likely, will help News.me attract more users.
Along with its announcement about the removable of the News.me paywall, betaworks revealed that The New York Times is no longer an editoral backer. However, the venerable company still owns part of betaworks.
They state:
We’re pleased to announce that News.me has officially spun out of bitly to run as an independent company under betaworks.We wish them the best. In fact, we think News.me offers a service that many will enjoy. Hopefully, even without The New York Times offering editorial content, News.me will survive. The now free News.me app is available now in the App Store. Updated: Our original article indicated that The New York Times Company was no longer a News.me backer. That was incorrect; what we meant to say was the company was no longer providing content to the service. It still remains a financial backer of betaworks.