Deal or No Deal: Free Nook with Subscription

Barnes & Noble has announced it will give a free Nook Simple Touch e-reader to customers who purchase a one-year digital subscription to the New York Times. The company also is offering its color e-reader for $99 with the same subscription, and its Nook Tablet for $199 with 12 months worth of People magazine.

 

The Nook Simple Touch is an e-ink device with a 6-inch screen that sells for $99. Color Nook retails for $199 and the Nook Tablet , which like the Color Nook has a 7-inch screen, sells for $249.

 

Sure, the offers seem like significant savings – but they are only if you planned to subscribe to either the Times or People anyway.

 

For instance, the New York Times subscription through Barnes & Noble runs $19.99 a month and includes morning device delivery to the Nook and full access to nytimes.com. B&N’s subscription for People magazine costs $9.99 a month.

 

The New York Times currently offers a digital subscription with access to its tablet app and website for $85 for 26 weeks, or roughly $13 a month. That $7 monthly premium would cover 85 percent of the cost of a Nook Simple Touch — meaning you’d be saving only $15 off the price of the device. Move up to the Nook Color and you still save only $16.

 

On the other hand, a one-year subscription to the print version of People is $113 including shipping, or $9.40 a month.  (The company offers a free digital subscription only with an existing print subscription.) Over a year,  Nook subscribers will pay $5 toward the hardware, a total savings of $45 on the Nook Tablet.

 

The offer runs through March 9 and is available at Barnes & Noble retail stores and through its website.