Amazon stops selling magazines and newspapers through Kindle Newsstand

Amazon is no longer selling magazine and newspaper subscriptions through Kindle Newsstand and will stop delivering current Kindle Newsstand subscriptions in September, according to an announcement from last week. Kindle Newsstand let people read Kindle-specific versions of publications right on their device, and the change will likely come as a disappointment for people who were used to getting their subscriptions that way.

But Amazon isn’t just stopping subscriptions on Kindle Newsstand; the company has also halted sales of print magazines and newspaper subscriptions. Here’s the timeline for how things will be phased out:

“As part of our annual operating planning review process, we always look at each of our businesses and what we believe we should change,” Amazon spokesperson Julia Lee said in a statement to The Verge. “Following an assessment of our magazine and newspaper subscriptions and single-issue sales, we have made the difficult decision to discontinue these services. We don’t take these decisions lightly and are winding down these offerings in a phased manner over several months. We will continue to support customers, sellers and publishers during that time.” Amazon shared a similar statement to publishers in an email obtained by Good e-Reader.

In its March 9th announcement, Amazon notes that select digital publications will be available through its own Kindle Unlimited subscription. But the changes largely represent a retreat from offering periodicals and mirror other shutdowns of special versions of periodicals like Google’s “print replicas” of magazines and the iPad-only newspaper The Daily. (Apple, however, is happy to offer access to hundreds of publications through Apple News Plus.)

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