Flipboard, the fashionable reading app for smartphones and tablets, is getting the New York Times. While it’s true readers have always had access to the New York Times articles, they haven’t ever been able to view those in Flipboard’s highly-polished layout.
Starting Thursday, all that will change. Flipboard will offer current subscribers everything the New York Times publishes. So if you have the app and you’re a Times subscriber, you no longer have to sift through social media feeds to get your news.
This is the first time the New York Times has brought its pay meter to a platform they didn’t own, but it’s all part of the publication’s new initiative to bring the New York Times to every format available (being called “NYT Everywhere”) for its paid subscribers.
The two companies will split the advertising revenue generated by the collaboration. It’s a significant partnership for both companies, and more importantly, it’s an indicator of where media is headed in the future.
Denise F. Warren, general manager of The Times’s Web site, comments on the new partnership with Flipboard:
“We realized that we have an opportunity to enable this kind of access for paying subscribers, and we thought it was something we ought to try and see how users react to it,”
Flipboard founder, Mike McCue, comments on the partnership with the New York Times:
“It is a major achievement for our company, and I think it’s going to set the stage for digital media and in the publishing world in general,”
“What we’re doing together is amazing.”
As always, the Top News section will still be available for viewing by non-subscribers. Flipboard has already made similar partnerships with media publishers like ABC News, USA Today, Wired and Vanity Fair. We’ll keep you posted as the New York Times continues to bring their publication to additional platforms.