The Washington Post, one of the most important representatives of the American printed (and online) press, has released a new publication – a free tablet application, available exclusively to Amazon Kindle Fire users, offering them two daily editions of the newspaper (or e-newspaper, in this case). One morning edition, and an evening one. The goal of the release is to increase the national and international audience of the newspaper – the customer base of Amazon. The online commerce giant will also benefit of the new release – The Post, as the app is called, will improve its Kindle Fire tablet’s appeal to its possible customers.
Actually, the free app will not be free forever. According to the current plans, the first six months of the users’ subscriptions will be free, with the possibility to extend their subscription with further six months for $1. After the first year, the subscription will require the payment of a monthly fee – the exact amount is still under discussion, but according to officials it will be somewhere between $3 and $5. Amazon has started rolling out the app as a software upgrade to its existing users yesterday, and will deliver its new Kindle Fire devices with the app pre-loaded on them.
The release – mutually beneficial to both parties – is not surprising, as Amazon’s CEO is the owner of The Washington Post. Jeffrey P. Bezos has lined out a new direction for the publication soon after he acquired the publication. The new app is the first step in this direction – others will surely follow. The release comes in a moment when, according to analysts, Kindle Fire sales are declining, with the tablet losing market share (although Amazon does not publish the sales data for its Kindle Fire tablet). Kindle Fire users read more, according to analyst Carolina Milanesi, and she considers the bundling of The Washington Post app “not a bad idea at all”.