The Washington Post is set to launch a new app that is specifically for owners of the Amazon Fire.
The new app, which comes over a year after Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post Company, is giving Kindle Fire users free access to the paper for six months.
"This unique app reflects the culture of innovation and experimentation at today's Washington Post," said Fred Ryan, publisher and CEO. "Our digital journalists and engineers are focusing on the multitude of ways to optimize the reader experience. With 42 million monthly readers and growing this is another step forward in our effort to serve an even larger national and global audience. We are thrilled to be working with Amazon to offer this first to Fire tablet customers."
The app will have both national and international news coverage, photography and more and will make it easier for users to get to the news that interests them. Two editions of the paper are released to the app per day, one at 5 A.M. ET and one a 5 P.M. with breaking news updates being published in between.
The app is essentially built like a digital magazine and users can swipe through it to get a birds-eye view of the articles. They can then tap an article to get a more in-depth and immersive view of the story, featuring text, photos and video.
"With 42 million monthly readers and growing, this is another step forward in our effort to serve an even larger national and global audience," continued Ryan. "We are thrilled to be working with Amazon to offer this first to Fire tablet customers."
The app will begin rolling out to users as part of an over-the-air software update to the Fire HDX, Fire HD and Kindle Fire HD. The app is largely focused on delivering news to a wider national and international audience, meaning it will not have news focused on any particular area.
While the app is only available to Amazon Kindle Fire users right now, it will be released to both Android and iOS users in 2015. While users get six months for free, after the six-month period they will be required to sign up to a subscription or they will no longer be able to use the app. They can, of course, delete the app.
"Digital reading opens up so many possibilities for experimentation, and The Washington Post's new app offers an immersive news-reading experience that we hope our customers find engaging and informative," said Senior VP of Kindle Russ Grandinetti. "We're constantly looking for ways to bring more value to customers, and free access to this new app is another example of the benefits of being a Fire tablet owner."
