A picture of Blendle’s laptop reader.
Business Insider | Gigaom | Nieman Lab
A trio of major American newspapers have signed up for Blendle, a so-called “iTunes for news” that allows readers to buy individual newspaper and magazine articles.
Under the terms of the agreement, articles from The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal will be available for purchase to nearly a quarter million users in The Netherlands, according to a release from Blendle. Articles cost an average of 20 cents, and pricing is set by the publisher.
The addition of American newspapers is “huge” for the digital newsstand, Business Insider’s Lara O’Reilly wrote Thursday. Before Thursday’s announcement, Blendle’s “chances of scale were limited at best” because its “its content was restricted to the Dutch language.”
The New York Times became an investor in Blendle in October, leading a financing round of 3.8 million with Axel Springer, Mathew Ingram reported for Gigaom. The company planned to invest that capital in international expansion “over the next several years.”
In April, Nieman Lab’s Joseph Lichterman took a look at Blendle’s business model, which involves refunding readers if they’re not satisfied with the article they purchased.
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