Amber Neely
Mozilla, creator of the Firefox web browser, has begun testing the waters regarding a paid news subscription service it plans to offer later this year.
Mozilla has started probing users to gauge interest in a paid news subscription, stating that a user can "support the sites you love, avoid the ads you hate."
The service, currently referred to as "Firefox Ad-free Internet" would be a direct competitor to Apple News+, which launched in March of this year, wrangling in over 200,000 subscriptions in the first 48 hours.
Mozilla has partnered with Scroll, an ad-free news startup to offer this service. Scroll is still in closed beta but says it has ad-free access to websites such as Vox, Gizmodo, The Verge, and Buzzfeed.
The service would include access to audio articles, bookmarks synced across devices, news recommendations, and a news-focused app. It also claims that it will work whether a user is reading news on mobile or desktop, suggesting that it will be tethered directly to the users Firefox account, allowing the service to be used on any browser they've signed into.
According to the teaser page, the service will cost $4.99 a month, which would undercut Apple News+ by about $5. The page includes a link to take a survey and be offered the ability to enter into the beta.
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23 Comments
The next tech bubble in the making, subscriptions. Streaming service after streaming service trying to get your subscription dollars. Software subscriptions plowing down the same path. Eventually there will be a HUGE shakeout/correction and it will be bloody.
And if publishers, as they claim, are not making much money with Apple News+ yet then how will a Mozilla service fair any better at half the price?
I look forward to competition. It might force Apple to improve the quality of their News app. For example, I have a 27 inch monitor but the width of most news articles I read in the News app is about 2-3 inches wide. Eighty percent of my beautiful retina monitor is wasted. That's just one of a dozen major failings in the News app. I'm hopeful Mozilla can make their app not stink.
I pay for music, tv and movies. Never have paid directly for reading news. Ad supported clickbait news is the inescapable result of this, and we, all around the globe, are living with the direct consequences of a commercially oriented “free” press. So yeah, subscription burnout is a real thing, but I don’t need two music subscriptions, Apple Music is fine for my family; I also don’t need multiple TV subscriptions (which I couldn’t possibly have time to enjoy all, anyway), I’m waiting for Apple TV+ rollout to kick Netflix to the curb; what I’m really hoping for is a good, independent, news service to become available in my region. For that, I’m almost anxious to pay for!