Google News Removing Magazine Support In December 2023 (9to5google.com) 7
Google has announced that its News app and news.google.com will remove support for paid magazines next month. "The removal not only applies to new subscriptions/purchases, but also to existing libraries of magazines," reports 9to5Google. "That means that users who have paid for magazines to use them in the Google News app will be cut off pretty soon." From the report: Ahead of the December 18 shutdown, users will be able to export copies of paid magazines. Magazines that cannot be exported due to interactive elements will be eligible for a refund. Google explains: "Support for magazine content in Google News is being discontinued beginning on December 18, 2023, which means if you previously purchased or subscribed to magazines, access from Google News apps or news.google.com to your library of magazines will be removed. To continue to access previously purchased magazine content, we are providing the opportunity to export and save each purchased issue. In some cases, purchased magazines contain interactive elements that cannot be downloaded and saved for future access, and we are offering a refund for this content."
The company further adds that affected users will receive an email titled "An update to Google News magazine support" which will contain instructions on how to download copies of magazines they've paid for. However, the cutoff for downloads and/or refunds is also December 18, 2023, which means the clock is ticking. You can access your library of magazines on News here.
The company further adds that affected users will receive an email titled "An update to Google News magazine support" which will contain instructions on how to download copies of magazines they've paid for. However, the cutoff for downloads and/or refunds is also December 18, 2023, which means the clock is ticking. You can access your library of magazines on News here.
Why I don't use electronic subscriptions (Score:5, Insightful)
This is an example of exactly why I don't subscribe to electronic subscriptions. Your purchased product can be taken away at the whim of the supplier.
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This is an example of exactly why I don't subscribe to electronic subscriptions. Your purchased product can be taken away at the whim of the supplier.
Yes, that is true, but it would be less of a problem if the subscriptions were the company's primary business - they would have an incentive to find a way to keep things going.
"Magazines" is just another example of Google throwing stuff against the wall to see if anything sticks. Ultimately, the real problem is that Google makes a gazillion dollars a year from selling advertising and everything else is just a hobby, something that they don't take seriously and that can be thrown away as soon as they get
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Ultimately, the real problem is that Google makes a gazillion dollars a year from selling advertising and everything else is just a hobby, something that they don't take seriously and that can be thrown away as soon as they get tired of it.
Not quite. Everything else is an attempt to generate data for their targeted advertising algorithms. So Gmail is safe, because they scan everything in it. Drive is safe, same reason. And so on.
Apparently, magazine subscriptions don't generate that much personal data.
Re: Why I don't use electronic subscriptions (Score:3)
I don't think you can trust Gmail with anything important. If Google uses Gmail for advertising, it's a violation of privacy, and Google can't be trusted.
On the other hand, Google says that it "(...) never use(s) your Gmail content for any ads purposes
(...) (It) never use(s) your Gmail content to personalize ads." [https://www.google.com/gmail/about]
Therefore, either Google is lying or it is giving away Gmail without any advantage to itself. One could say that it show personalized adds to costumers, based o
Undermining their own business (Score:3)
I can understand dumping "free" stuff. If you've conditioned your work/entertainment/communication ability on the kindness of strangers, shame on you.
Dumping paying customers...that's still understandable if you're big enough to not need them, but doing so in a very public portion of your public-facing services will likely give pause to potential customers whose business you might later need.
I'm not talking about the really big boys whom you'd chase to the back side of the moon to retain as a revenue source, or the legions of little guys who have no market signaling power or revenue worth considering. I'm talking about the considerable number of mid-range guys, say a few tens of thousands of smallish businesses capable of supplying tens or hundreds of thousands per year in license revenue, who by themselves are too small to command a vendor's full attention (and know it) but together could comprise a large enough revenue stream to be worth pleasing. Those guys know they can't make you do stuff, so you have to give them the idea you're reliable enough to not be concerned about. They might see stuff like this and pick someone else.
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In fact, the article says: "“only a handful” of people will be affected by this change, and that magazine purchases have not been available since 2020."