The New York Times has launched a subscription app featuring the paper's opinion coverage as well as a curated feed of broader commentary.
NYT Opinion, available now on iOS only, will cost $6 every four weeks. The app offers unlimited access to the opinion section on NYTimes.com, and like the recently released NYT Now app, the feature will also be bundled in with digital and home subscriptions as well as with Times Premier.
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Paul Smalera, formerly of Reuters and Fortune, will edit the new offering. The combination of Times content and curated stories from other outlets brought together by a specialized team is similar in structure to NYT Now, which focuses more on breaking news. The Times charges is $7.99 every four weeks for that app.
A Times spokesperson said that prices are determined by internal research.
Users will also be able to save stories to read later and follow their favorite Times columnists including Maureen Dowd, David Brooks, Nicholas Kristof, Thomas Friedman and Paul Krugman.
NYT Opinion was created "to satisfy demand for deeper access to specific areas of coverage and to expand digital subscriptions," the company said in a press release.
The new app comes the day after the Times published a column by Maureen Dowd on her experience trying a marijuana-infused candy bar, a massive dose that left she said caused her to hallucinate. The column generated significant buzz on social media.
Wait, you mean that up until now Maureen Dowd was writing sober?
— Bruce Arthur (@bruce_arthur) June 4, 2014
Next Maureen Dowd column: pic.twitter.com/c7rHwYxldL
— pourmecoffee (@pourmecoffee) June 4, 2014
The column delves into the aftermath of legalized marijuana in Colorado as well has her own experience with the drug. "As my paranoia deepened, I became convinced that I had died and no one was telling me," she wrote.
Since op-ed content often stimulates discussion, the Times has previously experimented with charging for it online. The media company previously tried to keep its high-profile opinion writers behind a paywall, known as TimesSelect. The subscription cost $49.95 annually or $7.95 per month and provided access to the columnists' work and the Times archives.
The Times eliminated that paywall in September 2007 after determining that the paywall was suppressing audience and traffic and that they they could make more from conventional banner advertising than from subscribers.
The broader paywall that the Times now employs has found more success. The company reported a total of 799,000 subscribers in April; that revenue has helped ease an overall decline in advertising income.
This success has spurred the company to explore other breakout subscription services, including Times Premier, its high-end, $45-per-month all-access offering. (Times Premier also costs $10 a month extra for subscribers.)
The Times previously teased an opinion subscription service. Another one about cooking is in beta testing and is expected to launch soon.
Denise Warren, EVP of digital products and services at the Times, said in the press release that the new opinion app was spurred by consumer demand.
“As the first standalone digital subscription to focus on one specific content area, NYT Opinion seeks to satisfy those readers who want even more engagement with Times commentary by delivering an incredibly rich user experience rooted in a continuous stream of world-class news analysis on both mobile and on the web."