Average reading time 3 minutes.
The first time I used Blendle I knew I had discovered something potentially very interesting. It was late September 2015 and I had some time to kill while travelling to Amsterdam Noord. A couple of days earlier I had subscribed to its newsletter after having heard about it on Dutch TV and read about it in the newspaper. When I got out my iPhone and scrolled through my email, I opened my Blendle newsletter out of pure curiosity. And that’s when it happened: I read a headline on an article about Nalden, one of my blogging heroes and founder of WeTransfer, and immediately got excited. I loved the article, and Blendle had made my day. It wasn’t long after that Blendle had blended into my daily morning routine as if newspapers never existed.
Blendle is an online pay-per-story news service that allows you to read articles from the world’s finest newspapers. It comes in the form of a web app and smartphone app. The digital newspaper aggregator first launched in the Netherlands in April 2014*, and has been active in Germany and the US (in beta) since September 2015** and March 2016***. I love this product so deeply that I just have to write an article on my positive experience.
LEARNING
The best part about Blendle, is that I become more knowledgeable. The news service is great at providing access to world events and allows me to read content that especially interests me, such as news on startups, or how to live a healthy lifestyle. Furthermore, it allows me to discover (international) newspapers that I previously wasn’t aware of, or had heard of but never considered interesting to read. As a result, I’ve not only broadened my interest for the newspaper industry, I’ve also become more interested in reading the news.
UX
Besides, I love the user experience*. In fact, this newspaper platform saves me time and money. Specifically, it aggregates articles customized to my interests in a daily email by letting experts seek out the best content for me, and I pay per article rather than per 6 month subscription. And it gets better: if I don’t like an article for whatever reason, I can immediately get my money back. Blendle even goes the extra mile, by allowing me to continue reading articles after I’ve run out of credit, sparing me the hassle of buying credit in between reading articles. In addition, its newsletter headlines are so compelling, it really makes me want to click. Even more so, I’m often in debate with myself as to which article will be more interesting to read when time is restricted. Also, as soon as I’ve opened an article, I see the average reading time, which allows me to determine whether I actually have time to read it in the first place. If I’ve been too busy to read anything at all, its weekly newsletter will summarize the week’s most popular articles. In addition, my user account provides an overview of the articles I’ve read and the cost per article, which is a nice summary of my reading history. Moreover, I love its tone of voice. Specifically, I really get the feeling it thinks along with the customer.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
Last, Blendle has excellent customer service. Talking about user onboarding, I received $2.50 worth of stories once I signed up, which allowed me to determine whether I would be willing to pay for its service once I ran out of credit. Also, the customer service team is excellent. The team is friendly, replies promptly and makes sure my question has been solved once we end our conversation.
I tried doing without Blendle a couple of days, but the truth is my breakfast isn’t the same without my buddy. Curious? Get your own account. Happy reading!
*Experience based on the web app, reading articles via the daily newsletter.
Sources: SVDJ*, RTLZ**, RTLZ***