The New York Times app, called NYT Now, is now free for everyone to use, after its $8 per month access charge proved to be unpopular. Launched in March last year and pushed as a way for news junkies to catch up on the day’s big stories, you could only access 10 articles a month for free, or have unlimited access by paying the monthly subscription.
The redesigned iOS-only app is populated with content selected by a team of editors located across three continents and can be configured to send out alerts when important news events occur. Open the app and you’re presented with a scrollable list of recent news events; tap on an article of interest and you’re taken to the full piece.
You can also request a morning briefing if you’re the kind of person that hits the news sites the moment you open your eyes, and local weather reports are slotted in if you allow the app to know your location. NYT Now subscribers who signed up via iTunes will no longer be billed, while anyone that joined via NYTimes.com will have their subscriptions extended to include all Web and smartphone content offered by the publication.
The news company outlined planned changes to its digital strategy last month, announcing it’d decided to carry out “an ambitious plan to transform into a nimble, mobile-focused organization that can respond with greater speed, agility and urgency to the needs of readers who are seeking out Times journalism on smartphones.”
Aimed at a “younger, mobile-first audience,” NYT Now will, the company hopes, help to take its work to a wider audience and ultimately bring more users to its core subscription-paid service that offers all of its content across a range of platforms. You can take the free, revamped app for a spin by clicking here.