Android Newsstand app 'important development' for publishers

Google has launched Newsstand, a Flipboard-like personalised reading experience for Android phones and tablets.

Newsstand allows readers to subscribe to free and paid-for websites, newspapers and magazines. The new marketplace replaces Currents, Google's existing app, and integrates paywalled sites.

Rob Grimshaw, managing director of metered subscription site FT.com, has described the launch as an "important development", saying that it provides a new avenue for the news outlet to connect with "more than one billion Android users worldwide".

Like Flipboard, Zite and other news-reading apps, Newsstand promises that "the more you read the better it will get".

According to the announcement post, there are 1,900 titles available via Newsstand. Users of Currents can upgrade to Newsstand by downloading the new app, with settings and subscriptions imported to the new app.

Subscribers to sites with part-paywalls or pay meters, including the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, will get access to that content via the Newsstand app. New subscribers can also sign up from within Newsstand.



In May, Flipboard, an app for iOS and Android devices, announced that Financial Times subscribers were able log in and read all FT content. Google's Newsstand is now following suit as, unlike Currents, the new app has paid-content integrated.

Non-subscribers to the FT can read eight articles a month for free within Newsstand before subscribing for full access, in line with the FT’s metered model.

"For the first time, readers will be able to subscribe to the FT directly through the third-party platform," the news outlet says in a release.

Grimshaw adds that the FT is "delighted to be able to offer seamless sign up through the app while maintaining our direct relationship with customers", an essential factor for the news outlet which withdrew from Apple's App Store for this reason.

And mobile is crucial for the FT, as 60 per cent of subscriber traffic now comes from mobile, according to an announcement at an event in London last night.

The New York Times, also a launch partner, says the move is an "extension of the NYT Everywhere strategy, which is designed to expand the Times’s reach to users on third-party platforms".

Non-subscribers will be able to read 15 articles a day via Newsstand until 5 January, after that time people will be able to see three articles each day, in line with the meter on other mobile platforms.

The Economist is also on Newsstand, with a single issue available for £2.47, less than the £4.99 it costs to purchase via Apple's Newsstand.

Apples's Newsstand launched two years ago and six weeks after launch some publishers, including Future, declared that it had "revolutionised publishing". Future's sales via Apple's Newsstand passed £5 million within less than a year.

There is further coverage of the new app on GigaOM.

Journalism.co.uk is available via the new Newsstand app and you can listen to our podcasts within the app. Just search for 'Journalism.co.uk' within the app.

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