New York Times to shut down app-based NYT Now news service

The New York Times has announced it will officially pull NYT Now — a cheaper, slimmed-down, app-based alternative to its core news services — from app stores on the week of Aug. 29, blaming its downfall on weak demand.

Available for iPhone and Android, the app peaked at 334,000 unique users in May 2015, but has averaged just 257,000 in the last three months, the newspaper said. NYT Now was first launched in 2014 at a price of $8 per month, making it much cheaper than the $15 for a regular digital Times subscription. Floundering in spite of this, NYT Now switched to a free model last year.

Some of the app's features are being folded into the Times' main app, such as morning and evening news briefings. Content updates will stop sometime in September — the app itself, though, should be pulled from the App Store and Google Play prior to then.

The aim of the service was to pull in younger mobile readers, but the Times noted that it has adopted a different, more successful strategy in this area, hooking into outside platforms like Facebook and Twitter.