Alternative to Zinio.

[Bokononist]

Hi, I changed over to a digital subscription of the magazine many years ago and I have always found it to be fairly convenient, particularly as I live in Spain and travel quite a lot. The problem is that over the last year or so I've seen a continuous fall in the quality of the Zinio app on my Android tab, to the point now where it just continually crashes and freezes at any opportunity. I use it across various devices and they are all relatively new and up to date but the problem is the same - comments on the Play Store indicate that a lot of people feel exactly the same. I'm really not prepared to give Zinio any more of my money but obviously I don't want to have to give up FT sub, so the question is are there any viable Android alternatives? I've had a quick scout around but I can't seem to see any. Changing to Apple is not going to happen either...

 

[Bokononist]

I've seen that Fortean Times is available on Google Newsstand but not in my region. Why can I buy it on Zinio but not on Newsstand? I wrote to Zinio about their app and they just sent me the usual canned message about making sure my software was up to date. So unfortunately my time with FT is almost up.

 

[Krepostnoi]

I've seen that Fortean Times is available on Google Newsstand

I'm much obliged to you for that tip, thank you. I've been in a similar position to you, in that I'm about to move away from the UK, and did not want to give my money to Zinio for a digital subscription. I've just been able to subscribe via Newsstand, and the reading experience is a huge improvement over Zinio. Might you be able to do something clever with proxy servers or the like, and make Google believe you are in the UK?

As an aside, I have never understood why publishers insist on regional restrictions for electronic media. It's almost as though they want us to pirate* material that we would be only too glad to pay money for if only they would allow us.

*Not that I condone such a course of action, me hearties.

 

[Bokononist]

I could do the proxy thing but I suppose, but I suppose I'd have to go through a proxy to get each issue? I'm not entirely sure how all that works.

 

[Krepostnoi]

I could do the proxy thing but I suppose, but I suppose I'd have to go through a proxy to get each issue? I'm not entirely sure how all that works.

I'm assuming that once you have the subscription in place, you should be able to access it from wherever. I will be dismayed, to put it mildly, if I find I can no longer access my subscription once I get to Malaysia. (FWIW, I have had no recent problems accessing eg my Spotify account from countries other than the one in which I signed up.)

 

[Bokononist]

I think that Spotify, like Netflix, will vary its content from region to region, so while you can access it from other regions, it may be a bit different depending on where you are. I hope the same's not true for Newsstand.