Google News Removing Digital Magazines, Will Refund Subscribers

Google started providing magazine content in 2012 with the Play Magazines app.

By Indo-Asian News Service | Updated: 4 January 2020 11:17 IST

Google News Removing Digital Magazines, Will Refund Subscribers

Google is sending emails to Google News users about full refunds of their magazine subscriptions

Highlights

Readers could still visit a magazine's website to read their e-version
Google also lets users continue to access previously subscribed issues
Publishers can continue selling content on Google News

Realising that people are not even reading magazines like Rolling Stone or Conde Nast Traveller and newspapers online, Google has decided to discontinue 'print replica' PDFs of magazines on its Google News app. The tech giant is sending emails to Google News users about full refunds that are being processed and there will be no new issues coming, reports Android Police.

The print replica magazines in Google News are the PDF versions of print editions that you could view on smartphones or desktop.

Readers could still visit a magazine's website if they wish to read the e-version of the magazine, the report said on Friday.

"This notification is to inform you that we're discontinuing print-replica magazines in Google News.

"Publishers can continue selling content on Google News in the form of paywalled RSS-based publications - it is only the support for the sale of discrete digital files that is changing," read the Google email.

However, you'll continue to have access to all issues you previously subscribed to in the Google News app, in the Following or Favourites tab, depending on your app version.

"To continue to read the latest articles, we encourage you to search for that publication in Google News, or visit the publication's website," said Google.

Google started providing magazine content in 2012 with the Play Magazines app.

The company later renamed it to Play Newsstand and merged it into Google News.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.