Instapaper Brings Back Premium Subscriptions As It Returns To Europe
It was just a couple of weeks ago that Instapaper announced its break from Pinterest, and it seems that the company's new owners are getting to work quickly. Though Instapaper was part of Pinterest's portfolio since 2016, the company went independent once more in the middle of July. One of the first things it's doing as an independent company is bringing back Premium subscriptions, which may not sit very well with its users.
Premium subscriptions wouldn't normally be a big deal, but the fact that their associated features were once free while Pinterest was in charge means this announcement is likely to sting for some users. Nevertheless, Instapaper explains in a blog post today that its newfound independence means that it now must worry about making enough money to offset its costs, and bringing back Premium subscriptions is the best way to do that.
Premium subscriptions to Instapaper cost $2.99 per month or $29.99 per year, which isn't too bad when compared to some other paid subscriptions out there. Features a premium subscription unlocks include full-text search for every article you've saved, unlimited notes, and speed reading. Subscriptions also remove ads from the Instapaper website and allow you send articles to Kindle devices as well.
"In addition to getting access to Premium features, your Instapaper Premium subscription will help ensure that we can continue developing and operating Instapaper," the company's Brian Donohue and Rodion Gusev wrote today. "Our goal is to build a long-term sustainable product and business, without venture capital, and we need your help to achieve that goal."
On top of this news, Instapaper also announced its return to the European Union today. The service was taken offline following the roll out of the General Data Protection Regulation at the end of May and, up until today at least, has been inactive ever since. To apologize for the downtime, Instapaper will give six months of Premium to all EU users who were affected by the outage, which is a nice little perk, but whether or not it can tempt back users who have since defected to another service while Instapaper was away is another question entirely.