The Kobo Wireless e-Reader just went up for sale few weeks ago and has integrated support for Kobo’s online bookstore, it also has the ability to download newspaper subscriptions, offering free subscriptions to check it out. It seems Kobo is now allowing Magazine subscriptions as well, and offering all of their content up for download via their applications on other platforms.
Kobo is now offering free two week subscriptions to various newspapers. If you live in Canada, you will have the option to purchase exclusive Canadian content such as the Vancouver Sun, Montreal Gazette and so on. The Kobo Store now offers the following digital publications The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Scientist, The Seattle Times, Wilson Quarterly, Foreign Affairs, American Scholar, China International Business, Columbus Dispatch , Guideposts, Harvard Business Review, National Review, New York Observer, PC Magazine, Publishers Weekly, Reason, The Christian Science Monitor Daily Briefing, The Nation, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Montreal Gazette, National Post, Ottawa Citizen, Regina Leader-Post, Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, Vancouver Province, Vancouver Sun, Victoria Times-Colonist, and The Globe & Mail. After the initial two week free subscription it will then be around $13.99 a month to continue your subscription.
Kobo will be continuing to expand its newspaper and magazine offering to ensure that we have all the publications that people want to read worldwide. If you have a Kobo wireless e-reader you can get all of these free trials right now. If you use the Kobo application on your iPad, iPhone, Blackberry or Android device, they just released support to subscribe from your other devices.
Not only is Kobo giving free trials for newspapers, but you can also get magazines as well! After the first free trial, magazines will then be around $2.99 a month. You can get such publications such as PC Magazine, The Scientist, Harvard Business review and more! Kobo promises us that soon they will be developing a portal for companies to get their newspapers and magazines listed on their service.
“Kobo continues to build on our commitment of making sure that consumers have the best reading experience on any device with the largest selection of content worldwide, ” said Michael Serbinis, CEO of Kobo. “We’ve had tremendous success with eBooks and we’re very excited to expand the Kobo offering to include newspapers and magazines with a two-week free trial, allowing consumers to try first without any obligation. We continue to bring on top publishers to ensure that Kobo’s newspaper and magazine offering meets our customers’ highest expectations.”
In our opinion its solid that Kobo is extending their content accross many different platforms, and customizing their content to be delivered in different formatting requirements. A magazine will certainly be formatted differently when you read it on your Kobo Wireless then the full color version available on the Apple iPad.
Although the reform of newspapers and magazines is not entirely new, we first reported on the availability of newspapers and magazines when we did our hands on review of the Kobo Wireless the day it came out. The big news is that now all of the content is available on a multitude of platforms.
Michael Kozlowski is the Editor in Chief of Good e-Reader. He has been writing about audiobooks and e-readers for the past ten years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as the CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and Verge.