NYT offers a sneak preview on its soon-to-launch mobile app ‘NYT Now’

The New York Times soon plans to launch an app that puts the paper second and this subscription based app will be priced at $8 per month. With the help of this new ‘NYT Now’ app, readers will be able to access curated feed of stories with specially crafted blurbs of key points, allowing readers to scroll down without tapping to get an idea of the most important news of the moment.

The Times gave Mashable a sneak preview of its soon-to-be-launched app, which in its sole intent is meant to attract an audience—the mobile-first reader with further acceptance of the fact that the strength of the product alone will not be enough in itself for The Times to counter the growth of mobile consumption. The visuals of the new app have not been released yet.

Executive editor Jill Abramson said that a team of 10 to 15 editors had been assembled to work specifically on the product. The main stream of the app is designed to be scrollable while providing the reader with the essential news of the moment. A user can tap on a story to get the full text. The investment along with the price point—about half as much as the full $15 per month digital subscription—positions NYT Now not as an addition to a full subscription, but as a standalone product. Subscribers will also be able to save stories on the app to read later. Any story available through NYT Now will be available to subscribers online.

The idea behind the launch of this app is to give readers a synopsis of the most important stories across the web on mobile, as seen by veteran editors at the Times, "a mini-newsroom for mobile," said Clifford Levy, a two-time Pultizer prize winning reporter to Engadget. This move from the Times comes following the recent spike in mobile traffic, especially when big stories break out. People want information at their finger tips during these times.

You can expect short and more visual stories on NYT Now with bulleted points and minimal paragraphs to get to the core of a story very quickly. The app will feature an “Our Picks” tab that highlights content from across the web curated by Times editors. There’s also a ‘Save for later’ tab that lets you bookmark articles and if you want access to all articles on the desktop rather than the curated selection than you will have to shell out $15 , but current NYT subscribers can access the NYT Now gratis.

By: Savita V Jayaram