The ToyBox

Ricardo Bilton & Gloria Sin
Home / News & Blogs / The ToyBox

Samsung partners with NYT for Go netbook and digital subscription deal

By | November 25, 2009, 7:26am PST

Summary: Samsung and The New York Times are partnering for a new deal on the Samsung Go netbook, just in time before the real holiday shopping begins.  Doesn’t really work for existing Go owners, but recent first-time subscribers can still take advantage of it until March 2010. Under the deal, You fork over $179.40 for the Times Reader 2.0 [...]

Samsung and The New York Times are partnering for a new deal on the Samsung Go netbook, just in time before the real holiday shopping begins. 

Doesn’t really work for existing Go owners, but recent first-time subscribers can still take advantage of it until March 2010. Under the deal, You fork over $179.40 for the Times Reader 2.0 subscription, and then you get $100 off the laptop.

The Reader subscription includes a completely computerized version of the Times, and it also grants access to exclusive video content. Oh, and the crossword puzzle. Once their downloaded via Adobe AIR, you can read the last seven days-worth of news without an Internet connection.

As for the Go netbook you will get, the 2.8-lbs. device runs on Windows XP Home OS, features a 10.1-inch WSVGA screen, 1 GB of memory and 160 GB of hard drive space.

It’s quite a unique initiative, and It’s also a good opportunity for the Times to push further into digital publishing and content. It seems no print publication is entirely sure how to turn a profit digitally these days (with the exception of The Wall Street Journal, maybe), so it might just be crazy enough to work!

If you’re interested in learning more or picking up this deal, you can do so via the Times’ website. Anyone going to get it?

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily e-mail newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

More from “The ToyBox”

Topics

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Netbook, Subscription, Reader Subscription, Netbooks, Nettops & MIDs, Hardware, Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for ZDNet based in San Francisco.

Disclosure

Rachel King

Rachel King has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted in this blog.

Biography

Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for CBS Interactive in San Francisco. Before serving as a contributing editor at ZDNet in New York City for two years, she previously worked for The Business Insider, FastCompany.com, CNN's San Francisco bureau and the U.S. Department of State. Rachel has also written for MainStreet.com, Irish America Magazine and the New York Daily News, among others. Rachel has a B.A. in Mass Communications and History from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, where she served as art director for the student magazine, Plated.

Related Discussions on TechRepublic

Did you know you can take part in these discussions with your ZDNet membership?
Ask a Question Start a Discussion
4
Comments
Add Your Opinion

Join the conversation!

Just In

I believe newspapers should focus on subscription type digital distribution
P. Douglas Updated - 25th Nov 2009
According to this article, 70% of newspaper costs are wrapped up in "print distribution and corporate expenditure". It seems to me that newspapers should focus on subscription type digital distribution, and try to maximize revenue from this source, so as to significantly cut print related costs, and prepare for the future. I believe if newspapers create highly differentiated user experiences in e-reader software, they can reasonably charge users for content, and mostly use their web sites to get as many people into their paying services as possible. I believe the above arrangement should also allow newspaper companies to charge decent ad rates, as there would be exclusive user experiences, services, and some exclusive content attached to the ads, as well as an audience inclined to pay money for the above.
View in thread
0 Votes
+ -
Me - No
Economister Updated - 25th Nov 2009
Assuming I were interested in paying for news (the article does not state the length of the subscription - kind of a key piece on info) I would look for the best device for me AND the best news source for me. I just don't get the bundling thing.
0 Votes
+ -
One year subscription
P. Douglas Updated - 25th Nov 2009
From this article, it appears that the NYT Reader subscription is a 1 year subscription.

I like the Times Reader, especially since it switched over to Adobe Air. I however believe there needs to be more stratification of subscription services and prices. I would never pay more than $50/yr for a NYT reader subscription. Plus I believe the Reader should generally feature multiple hi def pictures for each article, videos that optionally download and stay on your devices permanently, the right to keep the one year's worth of articles perpetually on your devices, etc. Higher rate subscriptions could feature collaboration rights, etc. Also it would be nice if users are billed monthly, quarterly, or yearly. $179.40/year subscriptions of the NYT Reader the way it is much too high - considering the NYT suffers only a fraction of the capital expenses it incurs when dealing with physical newspapers.
0 Votes
+ -
That is the part I do not fully understand
Economister Updated - 25th Nov 2009
I have never followed the newspaper business closely but printed paper subscription rates did not even pay for the printing and distribution costs. For on-line distribution, these costs are gone. I know that various free, online ad sites (Craigslist etc.) have cut into the papers' ad revenues, but if a paper's content is good, it should get a lot of traffic and be able to get a lot of high paying ads. Are their traditional cost structure just too high (including leveraged acquisition costs) or am I missing something here?
0 Votes
+ -
I believe newspapers should focus on subscription type digital distribution
P. Douglas Updated - 25th Nov 2009
According to this article, 70% of newspaper costs are wrapped up in "print distribution and corporate expenditure". It seems to me that newspapers should focus on subscription type digital distribution, and try to maximize revenue from this source, so as to significantly cut print related costs, and prepare for the future. I believe if newspapers create highly differentiated user experiences in e-reader software, they can reasonably charge users for content, and mostly use their web sites to get as many people into their paying services as possible. I believe the above arrangement should also allow newspaper companies to charge decent ad rates, as there would be exclusive user experiences, services, and some exclusive content attached to the ads, as well as an audience inclined to pay money for the above.

Join the conversation!

Formatting +
BB Codes - Note: HTML is not supported in forums
  • [b] Bold [/b]
  • [i] Italic [/i]
  • [u] Underline [/u]
  • [s] Strikethrough [/s]
  • [q] "Quote" [/q]
  • [ol][*] 1. Ordered List [/ol]
  • [ul][*] · Unordered List [/ul]
  • [pre] Preformat [/pre]
  • [quote] "Blockquote" [/quote]
ie8 fix

The best of ZDNet, delivered

ZDNet Newsletters

Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox

Facebook Activity

Blog Roll

Blog Archive

White Papers, Webcasts, & Resources
ie8 fix