A new premium tier for the Guardian app aims to keep users up-to-date with the latest journalism from the title.
Caspar Llewellyn Smith, editor of the Guardian’s digital platforms, announced the new “Live” and “Discover” features today.
At the cost of £5.99 a month users of the app can swipe left to access a live feed of the latest news from the Guardian with rolling updates.
Swiping right will show the “Discover” page, which will display long-reads, interviews, reviews and recipes.
The Guardian has reiterated its commitment to keeping all of its online journalism free, with Llewyn Smith saying in an announcement today: “None of our journalism is going behind a paywall.”
The premium tier will instead offer new ways to access the Guardian’s journalism which they described as “a reward for our most avid readers”.
Llewyn Smith said: “Talking to our app users, we heard about pockets of time throughout the day, five minutes waiting for the bus, for instance, or half an hour before going to sleep, when they choose to spend time with us.
“We created Live and Discover to suit their needs within these moments.
“Whether they want to know what’s happening in the world right at that moment in time, or instead are looking for something to surprise or delight them, we’ve tried to make things simpler for them.”
The premium app also offers an option to save articles to read later and ad-free access.
The release of the new premium app follows last month’s announcement that Guardian publisher Guardian News and Media has cut its losses by two thirds and is on track to break even by April 2019.
Guardian News and Media is currently in the midst of a three-year plan to turn its finances around.
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