Amazon is no longer selling print and Kindle, magazine and newspaper subscriptions, leaving several independent publishers stranded. First announced last year, the new Amazon policy came into effect this week. “You will no longer receive issues of your Kindle subscriptions after September 4, 2023. We will issue you a pro-rated refund for any undelivered issues within 3-5 business days,” the company informed in an update. The annual subscriptions will not renew at the end of their terms.

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“Please contact the publisher directly to cancel your Print Newsstand subscription,” the company said. A recent editorial in the August issue of Fantasy Magazine read that it is with “real sadness that we have to announce that October 2023 will be our last issue”. “People will want to know why, of course, and the answer is the expected one: Unfortunately Fantasy never reached a point of paying for itself, and with the Kindle Periodicals mess it's just not sustainable,” it added.

Last March, Amazon announced it will stop all of its print and Kindle magazine and newspaper subscriptions from next year. “Since that announcement, independent publishers have been scrambling to figure out how to make up for the loss in income that would ensue when many of their subscribers would suddenly disappear,” reports The Verge. Some publishers have been invited to become part of Amazon's Kindle Unlimited programme, where people pay a monthly fee for access to books and “select” magazine subscriptions.

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