Last week Amazon announced that they will be shutting down Kindle for Periodicals and Kindle Newsstand. This means starting in September 2023, you will no longer be able to subscribe to digital versions of newspapers and magazines.
Amazon is reportedly pushing publishers to make their newspapers and magazines free through Amazon Prime Reading or Kindle Unlimited.
According to GooderReader.com, Amazon sent this email to publishers about the change. “As part of our annual operating planning review process, we always look at each of our businesses and what we believe we should change. Following an assessment of our magazine and newspaper subscription offerings via Newsstand, we have decided to discontinue the individual subscription programs for both print and Kindle, including Kindle single issues. We don’t take these decisions lightly. We are winding down this program in a phased manner and will work with you throughout the wind-down process to help ensure the best experience possible for our mutual customers.”
This change will likely be the death of many smaller publications that primarily rely on Amazon for revenue. There are other similar options online to subscribe to newspapers, including apps for many magazines and newspapers, but Amazon has been one of the largest thanks to the large number of Kindles in the market.
Amazon has already stopped allowing new subscriptions to be sold, but anyone already with a subscription will be able to use it until September 2023.
Many newspapers and magazines are already available in Kindle Unlimited subscription service, including USA Today, People, TReader’s Digest, and many more. Amazon seems to hope this will push even more magazines and papers into the program.