Instapaper Relaunches Premium Subscription at $2.99/Month, Updates Privacy Policy to Comply With GDPR

[MacRumors]

Read-it-later app Instapaper today announced that it is relaunching "Instapaper Premium" as part of the company's new initiative that's looking towards "the next ten years of Instapaper and beyond." Instapaper is hoping to generate revenue after it became an independent company last month through a deal with parent company Pinterest.

Instapaper Premium costs $2.99/month or $29.99/year and offers full text search for all articles, unlimited notes, text-to-speech playlists on mobile, speed reading, an ad-free website, and a "send to kindle" feature. The company ensures that there will still be a non-Premium version of Instapaper and these users "will continue with a standard free account without access to Premium features."

In addition to getting access to Premium features, your Instapaper Premium subscription will help ensure that we can continue developing and operating Instapaper. Our goal is to build a long-term sustainable product and business, without venture capital, and we need your help to achieve that goal.

In addition to the subscription news, the company announced that it is bringing Instapaper back to users in the European Union. Just over two months ago, Instapaper temporarily suspended user access to its service across Europe as it faced issues implementing the EU's GDPR laws.

Over the summer Instapaper took "a number of actions" to address the GDPR and will now return for users in the EU with a newly updated privacy policy that includes the rights afforded to EU users under GDPR. The company is also offering six months of Instapaper Premium to all EU users affected by the outage.

Those interested can sign up for Instapaper Premium on the company's website.

Article Link: Instapaper Relaunches Premium Subscription at $2.99/Month, Updates Privacy Policy to Comply With GDPR

 

[yaxomoxay]

I still prefer the broadsheet physical papers, delivered to my home.
Much less drama, no clickbait, more insight, and due to limited space it contains much relevant stuff.
Since I switched back to the actual newspaper my life has changed for the better.

 

[adamjackson]

Other than supporting Instapaper's continued independence, I don't see a reason to pay for premium. I'm not sure what else they need to do to the product but for me, I save things to Instapaper at work that I can't read because I'm at work and by the end of the week, I've read everything in Instapaper down to zero. no speed reading, text to speech and I don't see any advertisements and I don't know why I'd add notes or search articles either. I'll pay but just to support them, the features aren't enticing.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Hmm..

I moved to Pocket years ago (just post Marco Arment) and haven't looked back.

Great to have a full Pocket sync on my Kobo reader as well.

 

[testcard]

I find Pocket is fine for saving articles to read later - it’s all I need.

 

[ignatius345]

Great to have a full Pocket sync on my Kobo reader as well.

Came here to post the same thing. I actually bought the Kobo specifically for Pocket integration and have been generally very happy with the device (waterproof!) and the service -- though I do wish the Kobo app supported highlighting in articles.
[doublepost=1533670954][/doublepost]

I still prefer the broadsheet physical papers, delivered to my home.
Much less drama, no clickbait, more insight, and due to limited space it contains much relevant stuff.
Since I switched back to the actual newspaper my life has changed for the better.

I get the paper delivered too. I love it for sustained, distraction-free reading. Only issue is I feel guilty recycling it on days when neither my wife or I get around to looking it over.

 

[Westside guy]

This may come across as snark, but - I don’t quite get what the value is here with Instapaper. It just seems like another business trying to inject itself as a middleman between content producers and content consumers. I get that you can “read it later”, but is that actually a problem that needs solving?

I’d be happy to hear why people do find this sort of utility worthwhile, though.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I get that you can “read it later”, but is that actually a problem that needs solving?

For me it is, but it's not one I'm really willing to pay much (if anything) for honestly.

For me it's a combo of "read it later" and "on another device in another context" (my e-reader).

I solely use Pocket for saving articles that are longer form and that might require more thought and focus and/or just anything I want to take my time and read at some point not at that time right when I discover the content.

I'd still use Pocket/Instapaper even if I didn't have an e-reader that could sync it all, but I'd use it less, no question.

One time I love to do my catching up is on a flight. That's a perfect time to bring the e-reader with all the synced content and drill into longer pieces and work through my list...and then sync it once I land.

 

[Florpy]

This may come across as snark, but - I don’t quite get what the value is here with Instapaper. It just seems like another business trying to inject itself as a middleman between content producers and content consumers. I get that you can “read it later”, but is that actually a problem that needs solving?

I’d be happy to hear why people do find this sort of utility worthwhile, though.

Instapaper was the first iOS app I purchased, on day one of the App Store. I find it indispensable. I come across an article while I’m working or in the morning, add it to Instapaper, read it at lunch. It also formats articles in an easy-to-read manner, without ads or annoying layout choices, a feature that precedes the existence of Safari's Reader View and it offers more control over the layout than Reader. (Extra line spacing makes everything much easier to read.)

 

[sinsin07]

Standard response to anyone asking for a recurring fee for innocuous functions:
Just Say No

The more that people do that the faster an end can be put to this subscription everything madness.

(See Macrumors : Newton email news item for reference.)

 

[ignatius345]

This may come across as snark, but - I don’t quite get what the value is here with Instapaper. It just seems like another business trying to inject itself as a middleman between content producers and content consumers. I get that you can “read it later”, but is that actually a problem that needs solving?

I’d be happy to hear why people do find this sort of utility worthwhile, though.

It's most definitely a problem that needs solving. Not only does it provide a place to, well, read things later (in a nicely formatted distraction-free format) but it also serves as an archive. So later when you're like "what was that thing I read about ________", you know exactly where to look for it instead of trolling through your entire browser history. Both Instapaper and Pocket also let you highlight sections of the text.

Pocket, which I use instead, also connects quite seamlessly to an ereader, meaning that I can queue up however many long articles I want from whatever sources I want, pick up the reader and hop on my plane knowing I've got everything on one dedicated reading device.

 

[dumastudetto]

No thanks.

Apple News does everything I need.

 

[testcard]

No thanks.

Apple News does everything I need.

Agreed, apart from the annoying menu that's always there on an iPad in landscape!