[Freak_NL]

Blendle didn't succeed in getting the major national newspapers on board, because providing access to all content would make them a publisher competing directly with each newspaper's own subscriptions.

If you consider the price of a full subscription to a quality newspaper, you can see why Blendle would be way too cheap to sustain as a publishing partner; especially with a monthly flat fee.

As a reader, I would love to pay what I am paying now for one newspaper to gain access to more newspapers — particularly worldwide (Volkskrant, NRC, German FAZ, some Belgian ones, some American ones, some British (although The Guardian is already accessible — I donate a small sum yearly for their efforts)).

I wouldn't necessarily read more, but a more varied selection of articles. A flat fee is a requirement though.

[CarbonvanE]

How did you come to the conclusion that Blendle didn't get the major national newspapers on board? In the old model every single major newspapers was since the start on board and only the NRC left in 2016. With Premium all major newspapers except NRC and de Telegraaf are on board. So practically every newspaper in the Netherlands is on board with both the micro-payment the subscription model.

(disclosure: I work part-time for Blendle)

[Freak_NL]

> How did you come to the conclusion that Blendle didn't get the major national newspapers on board?

You're not carrying NRC. Any serious collection of Dutch quality newspapers includes at least all three of Volkskrant, Trouw, and NRC. The rest is regional, tabloid (Telegraaf), or mostly irrelevant (AD).

[wdb]

I have been using Topics while my dad was subscribed to De Volkskranr you could read articles for the Trouw, de Volkskrant, AD, and Belgium newspapers etc. I thought it was a good deal.

Via my library I can use PressReader which offers a lot of worldwide newspapers for free. The Westminster council has access to it worth to check for yours!!

[Nextgrid]

> If you consider the price of a full subscription to a quality newspaper

Newspaper subscription prices are extremely inflated when you compare what they would’ve earning from ads (and they were happy with ads until blockers came around).

If they actually priced the subscriptions for the same amount ads would bring them from an average reader (excluding ad blockers) they would be much more affordable.

Sadly, just like the movie industry, the publishers are being greedy and shot themselves in the foot.

[calcifer]

Guardian's annual contribution starts at €0.96 per week [1]. Greedy? If anything, that's too cheap.

[1] https://support.theguardian.com/eu/contribute

[manigandham]

You're underestimating how much ads pay.