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Google News discontinues print-replica digital magazines

Google decided to kill something to mark the start of the new year, and this time around it’s surprisingly not one of the umpteen messaging services it has launched at various points. No, we’re talking about print-replica magazines in Google News.

Google has sent out a notification to the people who used to subscribe to digital versions of magazines through the app:

Subject: To all current Magazine Paid Subscribers

Hi there,

This notification is to inform you that we’re discontinuing print-replica magazines in Google News.

This means you won’t be able to purchase new print-replica magazine issues or renew your subscription via Google News. However, you’ll continue to have access to all issues you previously subscribed to in the Google News app, in the Following or Favorites tab, depending on your app version. To continue to read the latest articles, we encourage you to search for that publication in Google News, or visit the publication’s website:

[list of subscriptions]
Your last payment for your subscription(s) will be refunded. Most refunds are completed within 30 business days. The time it takes for the refund to appear depends on how you paid. If your refund is taking longer than expected, you can check the refund status in your Google Payments account. If you have not received your refund after reviewing the respective timelines in the resources above, please contact us and we’ll look into this for you.

We apologize if this causes any inconvenience. Thank you for your support.

Google News team

You won’t be able to purchase any new print-replica magazines anymore, nor renew subscriptions to them via Google News. That said, you will continue to have access to all issues you previously subscribed to in the Google News app (in the Following or Favorites tab, depending on your app version).

The email suggests you search for your publication’s name in Google News and just read its articles in a format that isn’t “print-replica”. And then subscribe to each magazine independently.

This marks the end of what started out as the Play Magazines app, later rebranded to Play Newsstand, and then incorporated into Google News eventually.

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