Customer Reviews

The Economist - US Edition

5 star:		(57)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(26)
1 star:		(210)

 

 

I was very happy and interested in the Economist on Kindle despite the cost until I learned that the subscriber content on the Economist web site is not included. This content which includes archived articles and the audio edition is only available to print or web subscribers. More info is available from the Economist @ 1-800-456-6086. For the cost involved the Kindle subscription should at least equal the print subscription benefits.

As a longtime subscriber of The Economist, I was quite enthusiastic at the opportunity to subscribe via Kindle: on time delivery, no more bypassing the magazine at airports and shops because I knew mine would be waiting at home, no more wrinkled torn copies from the Post Office, the ease and convenience of Kindle downloads. So, I tried the 14 day trial in spite of the reviews here.

After trying the Kindle version and experiencing its shortcomings, I think it's unconscionable and arrogant to ask the same price for the Kindle subscription, sans some of the satire / cartoons, etc. and particularly without the ability to use The Economist's website as allowed by the paper subscription. (Further, to add insult to injury, when I inquired if I could switch my subscription, as I still have months left on my paper sub, The Economist customer service replied there was no way to accomplish this.)

Kindle is brilliant, but Amazon needs to watch the offerings' quality, feature set and pricing, or they will in the end lose traction to other, alternative readers. The digital age is certainly here, but we will see rapid innovation and change, lots of competition and hopefully price competition as well. To this Kindle reader, it appears Amazon is trying to leverage its brilliant start a bit too heavily with some high prices and incomplete products: perhaps tactically productive, but in my opinion much poorer strategy for developing a longtime committed customer base - something I always thought Amazon was adept at.

I heard a report on NPR the other day regarding the cost to publish with Amazon... Amazon gets 70% of the revenue... the publisher gets 30%. So don't think the high pricing is all the publishers fault.

I love my Kindle, I love the Economist, and I am a loyal Amazon shopper, but not at this price. I'll stick with the print edition.

Note: I left a similar comment yesterday... Amazon deleted it. Guess they don't want you to know what their cut is!!!

Magazine - 5 stars
Kindle price - 1 star

Aside from the controversy between the Kindle price and regular paper subscription price, anyone can do a Google search and find the code that will pull the latest issue off of the website, reasonably format it (though not exactly like the Amazon edition) and then all you have to do is "translate" it with Mobipocket and dump it on your Kindle...all for FREE. And yes, I get all of the articles and pictures. And I can get the latest issue AS SOON as it hits the website. I just did the 14 day trial and they sent me...last week's issue (?!?)...when I can clearly see the new issue on the website. So all I'm asking is, meet us somewhere in the middle of Free and the $10 you are charging.

(I do subscribe to the print edition, but as far as I can tell, I am not logged in to the Economist website, so anyone can get this mag on their Kindle for free, with the proper tools)

Do yourself a favor and download the "Calibre" software for ebook readers. If you subscribe to the print edition, it will automatically login, download all the content, create an ebook and either email it to you or transfer over the sync cable to your Kindle (or Nook or whatever). Total cost is usually < $100 if you shop online for the print and online (web-based) edition. I'd love to buy this even if it cost a bit more, but why reward their awful product?

You can get a digital version of the Economist from [...] for less than $80/yr and this includes each issue in audio (download 140mb mp3) for free. From the [...]site, "The audio edition contains word-for-word recordings of almost all articles published in the The Economist read by professional newsreaders and actors. Choose between downloading the full edition of the newspaper, a particular section, or listening to streaming audio versions of our renowned leaders."

I am dyslexic, so i need everything offered on the the Kindle, but in this case i am going with the Economist digital version. The Kindle offer simply isn't cost effective.

I was ok paying more for the Kindle subscription due to having it the day of release. However, I am very disappointed that I can't read my copy of The Economist using the Kindle software application for my iPad and Mac. Big letdown.

I've never subscribed to any type of periodicals in print (save for a brief period in school when we were required to read Time/Newsweek). Since obtaining a Kindle (and later on a Kindle DX) I have discovered periodicals and the in-depth reporting service they provide. It is a bit of a shame to see the newspaper, magazine industry struggle as I have seen that they provide a very valuable place in society (at least the high quality publications do). Items like the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and now the Economist provide VERY high quality content and it has been so refreshing to read in depth coverage rather than having to rely on superficial TV coverage along with a focus on non-news items.

On the one hand, I do feel that the price set for the Kindle edition of the Economist is a bit high. On the other hand I have been reading a few Economist print issues before (and have now activated the 14 day trial for my Kindle DX). This is a very high quality publication. What price should a well researched, highly informative, and quality version of a publication receive? If we are only willing to pay rock bottom prices for content, we will invariably get rock bottom quality material.

No doubt this is one of those high quality content publications. The Kindle edition only adds convenience and portability to an excellent publication. If the convenience and portability do not justify the price for you, then I would suggest you stick with the print edition. Please also realized that the Kindle edition contains absolutely no adds to offset/subsidize the cost. Also, if the current implementation/limitations of the Kindle periodicals (i.e. DRM issues, color, etc) are not to your liking, I would also suggest the print version. For me the Kindle version is the best and most convenient way to read The Economist.

After reading my first Kindle edition, I have been very pleased with the content and the fact that The Economist staff has provided a nicely formatted Kindle version. I stopped my LA Times subscription due to the awful formatting issues as well as the lack of pictures/charts. The Economist Kindle edition does not have formatting issues and the charts/images look really good on my Kindle DX. The articles are divided into sections that are very easy to navigate with using the Kindle. I can easily pick the articles I want to read as well as the articles that I want to skip.

I'm very impressed with the quality of the content (which is not a surprise really), and the superb formatting work put in to make sure that The Economist looks good on the Kindle (DX).

If I were looking at both products (The Kindle version and the print version) and both were roughly the same price, I would definitely pick the Kindle version for convenience. Although it still remains to be seen whether I will keep this after the trial period since I do still feel that it is a little bit overpriced.

4.5 Stars from me. Scale back the price a little and it will be a perfect 5.

I'm not going to bother discussing the content. Anyone looking at these reviews probably knows what The Economist is and believes the content to be great. The issue, here, is the Kindle offering, most notably, the price.

Yes, it's expensive, and yes, I wish they'd reduce it a bit. But I'm not as outraged as some other reviewers.

In comparing Kindle vs. web and paper, it is reasonable to consider, among all the factors discussed by others, the nature of Kindle itself. I notice that with the Kindle subscription, I find myself comfortably reading pretty much the whole issue. With print, I read just a small fraction.

One factor, undoubtedly, is font adjustment. I'm getting to the age where reading hard-copy newspapers and magazines is becoming a bit of an exertion, so this is a huge factor. Of course web browsers allow for font adjustment, but I spend enough time working in front of a computer. I do cherish opportunities to do some things in different settings, such as an easy chair, or out on the lawn.

I also wonder if the more stripped-down emphasis on text is a factor as well. There's not as much to look at with the Kindle edition (they do try to put in some pictures and charts, but visuals are not what Kindle does best). With the magazine, there's so much to look at, I spend too much time going back and forth. Ditto the web site, where there are so many things to click on. With Kindle, there are lots of little easily-digestible text nuggets and I just go from one to the next.

I'm not sure if my explanations of why I read more on the Kindle version is accurate (I'll leave the details for amazon's usability experts to study), but I do notice the same phenomenon with my Kindle version of The New Yorker, where I abandoned the print version altogether.

Speaking for myself, I'm getting a lot more bang for the buck with the Kindle subscription. Hence my willingness to tolerate the pricing.

I would buy a Kindle DX *only* to subscribe to The Economist (all else would be gravy!) if the subscription was $5 per month. At the offered price, both Amazon and The Economist are leaving money on the table.

No sale for me, and many others, based on the reviews I have skimmed below. Listen to your customers, and then figure out a way to make it happen! I'll buy a Kindle the very next day.