A Kindle for the Press?

You know how, if you find a really good restaurant, or holiday location, or B&B, you wonder whether or not to tell the world, because it might be spoiled if too many people knew about it?

Well, I have similar feelings about a service which is available for free to many, perhaps most, UK residents, but which I fear might become prohibitively expensive for the provider if too many people actually took it up. So, ssssh! Don't tell everyone! But...

I discovered, almost by accident, that when I re-joined our local town library recently, this gave me not just a card for borrowing books and paying the fines when I return them late, but also a username and password to prove I'm a member. And one of the things they let me use is PressReader, a site through which you can access a vast number of newspapers and magazines. For free.

So, for example, if I have the urge to read the New York Times or Le Monde, The Economist or The Guardian, Condé Nast Traveller or Good Housekeeping, The New Yorker or New Scientist, Practical Boat Owner or Amateur Photographer, Macworld or What HiFi?, Popular Mechanics or Gardeners' World, Wired or Cosmopolitan... well, you get the idea. They're all there, with dozens, perhaps hundreds, more, and as far as I can gather, all free, courtesy of my local library! (Update: Other libraries may offer different selections, I gather...)

Anyway, I guess the idea is that if I took a stroll into town, I could read them for free there, but I do wonder, even then, whether it would be as easy to pick up current and back copies of La Cucina Italiana or Toronto Life, should I have the urge, as it is through this service.

Now, of course, it's not as enjoyable reading these on a laptop or desktop computer screen as it would be plucking a paper magazine from your coffee table, but if you have an iPad or similar tablet, you can get a good experience, and there's a PressReader iPad app which makes it pretty smooth.

I have always loved my iPads, and use them much more than my phone. I think I was one of the first people in the UK to own one, because sixteen years ago I happened to fly into the States on the day it was launched there and had pre-ordered this exciting new device which wouldn't arrive in Europe until a few months later. Some of my friends dismissed it at the time as just being a device for content consumption rather than creation, but that never bothered me, and I pointed out that I quite liked books too!

So I'm interested to see, looking back, that my post the following morning began as follows: "Apple has created a new kind of device – the coffee-table computer." Well, perhaps PressReader is the perfect embodiment of that!

Comments

Tim Green February 11, 2026 at 8:29 p.m.

Totally free? It says free trial for 7 days, then £10.99/month, or £27.49/month for unlimited. Or do you mean "Sponsored Access to PressReader" which seems location specific. I am already paying for Readly, a very similar service.

Paul Kelly February 11, 2026 at 8:58 p.m.

Thanks for this tip-off. I wonder if different library services subscribe for different breadths of publications. I am with Kent Library and almost the only UK publications I see are national and local newspapers. There is no sign of Good Housekeeping, The New Yorker, New Scientist, Practical Boat Owner, Amateur Photographer, Macworld, What HiFi?, Popular Mechanics, Gardeners’ World, Wired or Cosmopolitan. Nor MMM.

qsf February 11, 2026 at 11:07 p.m.

Hi Paul - ah, perhaps that's the case. When I'm logged in via my library account, in the 'Catalog' area, I have separate sections for 'Newspapers' and 'Magazines'. Do you not get that?

qsf February 11, 2026 at 11:11 p.m.

Hi Tim - When I go to sign in, I choose 'Library or Group' as the sign-in method, then search for Cambridge... Q

Mark Farrington February 12, 2026 at 8:25 a.m.

I’ve had free access to a range of enjoyable magazines & newspapers for a couple of years now, though Cambridgeshire Libraries. My range of options sounds different (I do get Amateur Photographer, for example, and I think I get offered the Torygraph rather than the Grauniad 🙄). There’s a good range of photography, travel and tech magazines, wildlife etc etc. Relying on memory, I get 1 month’s access at a time by re-registering with my library user number and PIN, and this changes annually so you have to contact the library to update your code at that time. The process is slightly clunky, unintuitive and not well described, but it definitely works after a bit of persistence, and saves a fortune.

Jim February 12, 2026 at 9:26 a.m.

Very similar selection in Derbyshire libraries. However, they are moving magazines to the Libby app in April. Newspapers remain on Pressreader. Another recommendation: your library may allow you access to BorrowBox and Libby which provide lending library access to audiobooks. My wife 'read' more than 60 in the last twelve months for free. And an observation: I think Derbyshire libraries is the single best governmental service I ever interact with. I, too, came back to libraries only a few years ago, and have been amazed at how good it is and how busy it is. When I call in to one of the many libraries in the county, they are always a hive of activity. The collection is vast. I have a wide reading interest and the library has almost always had what I've looked for. On the one occasion they didn't they went out and bought the book for me. I thought I'd try Boswell's life of Johnson (something I'd never buy); the copy they produced for me had been in the collection since 1938!

Mark Farrington February 12, 2026 at 9:55 a.m.

Should have checked properly: I do in fact get access to the Guardian/Observer, and also the Indie and Express & Mail. It’s ages since I last looked for newspapers so it’s possible the list has changed.

Paul Kelly February 13, 2026 at 10:18 a.m.

Elaborating on my comment above. I am using the iPad app. I have the category choices, but under magazines I only get offered ten magazines, all foreign and most foreign language. However, I feel mean complaining about something that is free and that I was unaware of, being less bounteous than it might be. My library also gives access to Libby, and that offers me 120 UK magazines, including most of those Quentin mentioned, so I think I have much the same benefit though partially through a different route.

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A Kindle for the Press?

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