Update 7 April 2011: Barnes & Noble has announced a similar perk for Times subscribers on the Nook and Nook Color.
Original post:
If you subscribe to the New York Times on your Kindle, you can ignore the new paywall that the newspaper has implemented. Amazon just announced that all Kindle subscribers will have free access to nytimes.com as part of their Kindle subscription.
This doesn’t really provide any sort of huge savings benefit to the dedicated New York Times reader — the Kindle subscription is $20/mo, the same as an iPad/tablet subscription, while a smartphone subscription is $15/mo. However, this does make the Kindle version a viable option again, which I’m sure is as important for Amazon as it is for Times’ readers who own Kindles.
Weirdly, the announcement doesn’t say that subscriber access is active yet, even though today is the day the paywall goes into effect. Amazon just notes that “the date for Kindle New York Times subscribers’ free online access is yet undetermined; subscribers will receive further communication via e-mail in the coming weeks.”
Here are details of the subscription plans, and more information on how the paywall works.
“Kindle New York Times Customers to Receive Free Access to NYTimes.com” [Amazon]
(Photo: vitriolicviolin)