Flipboard in Content Deal With New York Times, The New York Times said on Monday that it would make its articles available through Flipboard, a popular app for browsing news and social media on phones and tablets. It will be the first time that the newspaper has allowed subscribers to get full access to its Web content through a third party.
Beginning Thursday, Times subscribers will be able to view articles, videos, slide shows and blog posts inside Flipboard, and nonsubscribers will be able to read a free sampling of articles.
Previously, The Times had made only parts of its digital content accessible through third parties. Denise F. Warren, general manager of The Times’s Web site, said it made sense to extend the publication’s reach through alternative channels now that it was shifting toward digital subscriptions.
“We realized that we have an opportunity to enable this kind of access for paying subscribers, and we thought it was something we ought to try and see how users react to it,” Ms. Warren said in an interview.
She said that The Times had conducted a survey with its subscribers and found that 20 percent said they read Web content through third-party apps like Flipboard that feature a variety of sources.
Flipboard’s app takes online content and reformats it into magazinelike layouts. Readers can swipe their fingers on touch screens to flip through articles. Flipboard, which is based in Palo Alto, Calif., was founded by Mike McCue, a former executive of Netscape, and Evan Doll, a former Apple engineer who worked on the iPhone.
The partnership involves an advertising revenue split between The Times and Flipboard. The Times will sell full-screen ads that appear between its Flipboard pages, which are intended to be more attention-grabbing than conventional Web advertising. Ms. Warren declined to comment on how the revenue would be split.
Mr. McCue said the partnership was significant for Flipboard, which has been striving to make as much high-quality content available through its app as possible. Its other media partners include ABC News, USA Today, Wired and Vanity Fair.
“It is a major achievement for our company, and I think it’s going to set the stage for digital media and in the publishing world in general,” Mr. McCue said. “What we’re doing together is amazing.”
Flipboard is a free app for Apple’s iPhones and for Android handsets. For tablets, the app is downloadable on Apple’s iPad, Barnes & Noble’s Nook and Amazon’s Kindle Fire.
Readers get access to Times content on Flipboard based on the subscription package they bought. Subscribers with access to the Web site and smartphone apps can view The Times on Flipboard’s smartphone apps. Those who subscribe to the Web site and tablet apps can read the content through Flipboard’s tablet apps. And readers who pay to have access to The Times on any digital platform can have access through Flipboard’s apps on any mobile device.
Nonsubscribers can read the Top News section of The Times free through Flipboard. Ms. Warren said this feature would expose The Times to new readers and perhaps encourage them to buy subscriptions.
She said that this move was part of a broader strategy to expand the reach of Times content, including to third-party digital products, and that more partnerships would be announced in the coming year.
Flipboard in Content Deal With New York Times
