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Newspapers and magazines have gone digital and if you’ve never read a digital magazine before, now is a great time to give it a go. Digital publications are available to read on your computer and mobile devices, making them convenient to read wherever you are.
Some publications such as Newsweek are now available only in digital while others are available both in print and digital. Some services give you the choice of reading issues in the classic view, where the digital edition looks just like the print version, and in the digital view, with easier navigation and bonus features such as interactive media. Some digital subscriptions may be free if you already have a paid print subscription.
Each digital publication service has different features so you can decide which one suits you best.
Why You May Prefer Digital Publications
You may have many reasons for wanting to read your newspapers and magazines in a digital format:
Convenience – Have your media with you on your computer and mobile devices.
Accessibility – Get access to publications available only in a digital format.
Worldwide Availability – Read publications from around the world instantly.
Never Miss an Issue – You don’t have to wait for issues to arrive or worry about lost issues.
Saving Trees – Your recycling pile will be much lighter with digital subscriptions.
Easy Searches – Find articles quickly through keyword searches.
Added features – Enjoy bonuses such as interactive features, links to products, additional original content and other features.
Easier Reading – You can Fix Your Font on digital media to the size that’s most comfortable for your eyes.
Free – Some publishers offer free digital subscriptions with a paid print subscription.
Audio Versions – PressReader and Audible offer audio versions of some publications.
Sources for Digital Media
PressReader
PressReader gives you access to over 2400 newspapers around the world on your computer and mobile device for one subscription price: $29.99/month. If you enjoy reading multiple media sources, PressReader may be the most convenient and cost-efficient way to get your newspapers delivered.
PressReader is available on multiple platforms and delivers your content via automatic or manual downloads. PressReader brings you 2400+ newspapers from more than 97 countries in 54 languages around the world.
PressReader allows you to purchase individual issues or pay one price for an unlimited number of publications. Think à la carte versus an all-you-can-eat buffet. For under $30/month you can read every newspaper they carry, though I doubt you could read all of them in a month. PressReader carries major publications such as The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, USA Today, International Herald Tribune, Le Monde and others. You can get a free trial of seven issues to see if you enjoy the service.
PressReader’s All-You-Can-Read price is $29.99 per month, or $39.99 per month if you sign up through iTunes. Even if you sign up on PressReader’s website, you can still get access to all of PressReader’s newspaper through their iTunes app.
[note]Make sure you sign up for your subscription through the PressReader website to save $10/month over signing up via the iTunes app.[/note]
PressReader also offers audio versions of publications, where available, which are included with your subscription at no additional charge.
You can read newspapers in a replica format, that displays the issues as they appear in print, or in SmartFlow format, that provides easier navigation between articles.
Here’s a video showing how PressReader works on the iPad:
You can check out videos of PressReader on other devices on their YouTube channel.
Features of PressReader
- Unlimited access to 2400+ newspapers worldwide for one price
- Access from computer and multiple mobile devices
- Wide variety of publications and countries
- Audio versions included
- Ability to turn automatic downloads and Wi-Fi only downloads on/off for each publication
- Print full articles wirelessly
- Save articles to Evernote and other web clipping services
- Instant translation of articles into 12 different languages
- Publications available in replica or Smart Flow formats so you can either view publications as they would appear in print media or optimized for your mobile device.
Availability
You can access Pressreader on your computer or mobile devices using these apps:
- Computer Desktop
- iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch
- Android
- Kindle Fire and Android
- Windows 8 or RT
- BlackBerry
Information about activating your subscriptions on these apps is available on the Pressreader blog.
Zinio
Think of Zinio as one-stop shopping for your digital magazines. Zinio bills itself as the “largest newsstand in the world” with over 5000 titles available in 25 languages from more than 200 countries in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia, Oceania, and Europe. Zinio delivered over 70 million digital issues in 2012 from more than 1300 publishers around the world.
Zinio sells subscriptions to digital magazines as well as individual issues. Once you purchase an issue of a publication, you can access it from Zinio at any time in your personal archives. Zinio also has free articles available every day, such as “If You Build It” from Ad Week about the rise in popularity of Legos.
Zinio often has offers for discounts on magazine issues and subscriptions.
Pricing on Zinio varies based on whether you’re interested in purchasing a subscription, single issue or “continuous issue”. A continuous issue means that your credit card is charged when each issue is published but you can cancel at any time. The savings for signing up for a continuous issue can be significant. For example, a single issue of PC World is $6.99 for a single issue or $1.99 for a continuous issue.
Features of Zinio
- Free articles
- Wide selection of publications
- Discounts on issues and subscriptions
- Archives of past issues
- Auto-download
- Offline reading
- Sharing on Twitter and Facebook
Availability
You can read Zinio publications on your computer or mobile devices through these apps:
Kindle
Whether you have a Kindle Fire or Kindle ereader, you can purchase subscriptions to newspapers, magazines and blogs on your Kindle from Amazon’s Kindle Newsstand. Amazon offers subscriptions to both print and Kindle editions of magazines, sometimes for one subscription price. For a list of magazines available for both print and Kindle see Amazon’s website.
Pricing
For digital subscriptions, Amazon gives you a free trial period — 30 days for magazines, 14 days for newspapers and blogs. Amazon often offers sale prices on subscriptions. You can also buy individual issues of magazines and newspapers for Kindle.
Pricing of subscriptions and individual issues varies based on the publication. The New York Times on Kindle is $19.99/month, The Wall Street Journal Kindle Edition is $21.99/month.
Features of Kindle subscriptions
- Blogs – Get subscriptions to blogs on your Kindle.
- Availability – Get subscriptions delivered automatically on your Kindle or through your Kindle app on your computer or mobile device.
- Auto-delivery – Issues are downloaded when print versions hit the newsstand.
Note that if you have a 3G Kindle, additional subscription charges may apply for downloading your subscriptions outside your home country unless you are connected to Wi-Fi.
Newsstand for iTunes
Your iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch come with the Newsstand folder pre-loaded. Newsstand holds publication apps such as The New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, People Magazine, Motor Trend and other iOS apps. You can purchase subscriptions to each individual app or log in with your print subscriber information, in which case the digital edition may be free.
A blue ribbon now appears at the corner of the app in Newsstand to show you when a new issue is available, but new issues are not automatically downloaded.
Features
- Subscriptions may be free if you have a paid print subscription.
- Easy access to all your subscriptions from one app.
- Only available to read on your iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.
- No automatic downloads.
- In-app subscription purchases may be more expensive than subscribing through a website(see PressReader above).
Google Play Magazines
If you’re looking to read magazines on your Android device, check out Google Play Magazines. This app gives you access to your subscriptions on your Android or you can purchase digital subscriptions and individual issues for thousands of different magazines at Google Play.
Earlier this year, Google began offering a “free for print subscribers” option for its magazines in Google Play, when permitted by publishers, so you may be able to get magazines from Google Play for free if you have a print subscription. You can enable automatic or manual downloads for your subscriptions.
Audible
If you prefer to listen to an audio version of magazines, check out Audible which has almost 9000 newspapers and magazines available in audio versions. You can buy audio subscriptions, single issues and individual articles using cash or Audible credits.
Audible offers subscriptions to periodicals such as The New York Times Audio Digest, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Harvard Business Review, The New Yorker, and other publications.
Audible members get a free audio subscription to either the New York Times or Wall Street Journal as a benefit. My full review of Audible can be found here: Audible: My Favorite Way to Read a Book.
Bottom Line
With all of the choices for reading digital media, you should shop around to see which service has the best price and is available on the devices you want to read them on. Check to see if the subscription service has automatic downloads if you want the content available as soon as it’s published. If you’re already a print subscriber, see whether a free digital subscription is available to you. Check availability – not all titles are available from all services.
If you subscribe to more than one newspaper online, check out PressReader to save money and get access to thousands of newspapers with one subscription price (though be sure to subscribe directly from the PressReader website, not through iTunes).
Consider convenience. Make sure that you’re receiving your subscriptions on the device where you do most of your reading. Try to avoid getting locked into subscriptions that are only available on one device, especially if you read on multiple devices.
Check your storage space on your computer and mobile devices. Digital magazines with lots of images can take up space so be sure to delete them when you are done reading them.
Try the bonus features. One of the advantages of digital media is the inclusion of content such as embedded videos or links to other articles, advertisers or websites. Explore and enjoy.
Do you enjoy reading digital publications? Do you have any digital subscriptions? Do you prefer reading print or digital media? Let us know in the Comments section below!
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Audible seems to be a good choice as I love to hear news. So if audible is providing news and magazines in audio form then I should give it a try.
Hi Yes, Prakash, both Audible and PressReader offer audio versions of newspapers. So you can listen to the news with either one of those services.
Enjoy your audio news, Prakash!
Hi Carolyn,
Yet another informative post 🙂
Ah…I wonder how people manage to read all of this on their mobile devices! I guess I’m a little old fashioned there and prefer sticking to my good old hard bound copies of magazines and newspapers. I think the pleasure you get on reading like that isn’t so when you read online. Or perhaps it’s a matter of getting used to it. Yes, I read a few online, when and if I have the time, or else we get the daily newspaper at home that all of us read.
Except for Kindle, all of the others are new for me, and I would surely be checking out a few of them. My kids of course are all into all of this, and would enjoy it more, so let me forward this one to them. 🙂
Thanks for sharing. Have a nice day ahead 🙂
Hi Harleena, Yes, the evolution of reading from print to digital has spread beyond ebooks into newspapers and magazines. Many people know where to get ebooks but many people are unfamiliar with all of the sources for digital newspapers and magazines.
I enjoy both the print versions and digital versions of many publications. I like the digital versions that offer bonus content, reading entire articles without having to find on what page the article is continued, and reading the readers’ comments after the article. I also like having access to the digital copies wherever I am.
The reading experience is admittedly more satisfying on a tablet or a computer, but I have been known to check digital newspapers on my phone as I always have that handy.
If you enjoy print, you should stay with that, Harleena, but you also may be eligible for free digital subscriptions because you’re a print subscriber too!
Thanks for stopping by and for sharing this article, Harleena!
Hi Carolyn,
Great post for Digital magazine lovers. 🙂 Absolutely there is no doubt that the touch driven digital gadgets had changed our life way beyond expectations.
Indeed, It fuels more energy to encourage reading habit since available handy and style. Information and knowledge sharing become never easier before like this.
The PressReader looks great and the may little pricy since monthly subscription. However, for regular readers this should fine I believe 🙂
Thanks for sharing the informative post Carolyn.
Hi Manickam, Yes, these services are great for people who like to read their newspapers and magazines on their computers and mobile devices.
PressReader could be a bargain if you read multiple newspapers daily. I like that you can access newspapers worldwide. You can even get different editions of newspapers on PressReader. For example, you can get and compare the main and South Jersey editions of The Philadelphia Inquirer to see the differences and see which edition suits you best.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us, Manickam!
Not there yet, but it probably won’t be too long before I do an online subscription. Our local paper is just getting ready to charge for digital, but we get the weekly paper version delivered to our house so it will be free.
I did have to re-register my Kindle account because I made the mistake of using two e-mail addresses and when I did it is giving me Kindle Prime free for 30 days.
Good stuff….as always…
Hey Bill, I’m such a huge fan of Amazon Prime, I really need to write an article about it. So glad you’re getting it for free for 30 days. That’s how I go hooked on it.
That’s good that your newspaper is giving away digital subscriptions free to print subscribers. I wish they had PressReader when I was in England. I went to the local newsstand and asked if I could get the newspaper from back home. They said sure, but it would be $50 per issue and it would arrive a week late. I didn’t sign up for a subscription…
Carolyn – Yes, I am very much into digital publications and I commonly use the Audible app for listening to audio books on my way to work. It is just awesome how easy it has been to spend your time in traffic with some purpose 🙂
The other means listed by you sound very promising, i should check them out. You always give 100% to all your articles and am left with no questions what so ever about these tools. Great writing.
Wow, Praveen, thanks so much for your very kind words! Yes, I try to give my readers as much information as is useful.
Audible is a fantastic service. I’m thinking I might write an updated article about them since they have added so many new features since I wrote about them two years ago. Their free audio newspaper subscriptions are very helpful to those who prefer to listen to their news. That alone may be worth the price of an Audible membership.
I hope you find some of these other resources useful, Praveen!
I’ve got to be honest, not the biggest fan of digital news as yet. I just love the feeling of the newspaper in hand when reading. The idea of helping the environment does make me think twice about my preference though.
Hi Frank, Yes, just like ebooks, digital media isn’t for everyone. But once you try out digital media you may enjoy it more than you think due to the convenience.
I like print newspapers and magazines too but also appreciate digital subscriptions. The best of both worlds!
Hello,
Awesome post! Well im already a kindle user and im habituated to read book on kindle. However the listed digital subscription looks cool. I gonna try some of them soon.
Thanks for the great share.
Hi Sarvesh, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech!Yes, if you’re a Kindle fan, you may enjoy getting some subscriptions on your Kindle. May people enjoy the automatic downloads, enabling them to wake up to new content already on their Kindles.
I don’t do a lot of reading online really Carolyn, not even on my iPod or iPhone yet. Now I will be traveling finally this month so I have a feeling I’m going to be able to put some of these to the test. You know, just so I won’t feel like I’m so darn far behind the times with everything.
I still would love to get a Kindle so that might be my next investment. I don’t want something really really small though so I won’t be going the mini version I’m sure.
Thanks for sharing these so now I’m going to have to decide which route to take.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, I’m happy to chat with you to help you figure out which Kindle might work best for you. If you’re considering a Kindle Fire, you might want to check out Which Tablet is Right for You?
You’re exactly right, when you’re traveling mobile devices come in extra handy!
This is a great resource Carolyn. I’ve shared and bookmarked this. Honestly, I’m in the same camp as Harleena when it comes to preferring an old fashioned paper magazine. (I’m on digital overload most of the time.) So, for me, I’ll stick to the old fashioned print. My one exception is Website Magazine. They give away a free mini-subscription to the digital version of their magazine. It’s perfect for sharing content. The digital version actually hooked me into subscribed to the print version. (I believe they give you quarterly versions free and then tease you with what you’re missing in the other eight.) With the print version subscription, I have access to all twelve months in both formats.
Hi Sherryl, Good point, those who look at computer screens all day may want the comfort of the printed word for their media. But if you get the digital edition for free then you may find subscribing to give you added convenience.
Thanks for sharing and bookmarking this article, Sherryl and adding your insightful comment!
I think Audible is good because they are providing better services. I like to hear news mosly current affairs.
Hi Chetan, Yes, I’m a big fan of Audible. Their audiobooks are amazing and this free subscription for members is very impressive.