While the end of support on Windows may have come as a surprise, The New York Times hasn’t only focused on Windows, and has now also officially shuttered the NY Times Now app for Android and iOS. Released in 2014 the application was created to attract new, younger readers with a curated selection of the outlets’ content for an $8/month subscription fee-about half the cheapest digital subscription. Unfortunately, “the app never quite took off”, and NYT Now transitioned to a freemium model previous year in an attempt to expand its audience. The app was said to have peaked in May 2015 with 334,000 total unique users in one month but, in the last three months, it only managed to acquire 257,000 total unique users.
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NYT Now was among the first attempts by The Times to enhance its appeal to mobile users as it looked for new revenue sources that would offset drops in print advertising and circulation.
In general, apps have a tough time attracting loyal users.
Features of NYT Now – such as bullet-point lists and briefings – have been steadily incorporated into the Times’ main mobile app.
Kinsey Wilson is the New York Times executive vice president for product and technology. “That gave us a different ability to tap into younger audiences and to provide exposure to a much, much wider audience”, said Wilson. The app will officially be unavailable in September.
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It follows the same fate as NYT Opinion, an app that was shut down in 2014 for failing to gain traction with audiences. With readers gravitating more toward social media services like Facebook,FB -0.23 % news outlets have struggled to generate readership on their own mobile apps.
