Periodically, we do a round-up of past stories to give readers an update on what subscription companies we’ve covered previously are doing now. Here are a few companies that have been in the news recently. In this round-up, we’ve got updates from Vive on their Viveport virtual reality subscription, a newsroom walkout at The New York Times, Apple Music’s new annual subscription offer, Vimeo bailing on its planned OTT subscription, and Toronto Star discontinuing its Star Touch tablet app.

Viveport VR Subscription Doubles Content

Last month, Viveport announced that it had added 75 new titles to the Viveport subscription, bringing its total number of virtual reality apps to 150. ­The new additions include theBlu, Everest VR, Fantastic Contraption and MakeVR. Other titles include Vive Studios own titles, and some of the apps have not been outside of Asia before now. The Viveport subscription launched on the one-year anniversary of HTC’s Vive. After a one-month free trial, subscribers pay $6.99 a month to download up to five titles per month. Popular titles include Virtually Impossible, Smell of Death, Tilt Brush, Airborne VR 1944 and MageWorks.

New York Times Newsroom Protests Staff Cuts and New Direction of the Paper

On June 9, we reported that The New York Times was offering buyouts to its newsroom employees to reduce the layers of editing. This was a follow-up to the recommendations included in The Times’ 2020 report published in January. The idea is to reduce editorial staff to hire reports for more original coverage. Staffers are not happy, reports MarketWatch. On Thursday, after sending a letter to executive editor Dean Baquet and Managing Editor Joseph Kahn, the editorial staff staged a newsroom walkout to protest the continued cannibalization of the news organization.

“Cutting us down to 50 to 55 editors from more than 100, and expecting the same level of quality in the report, is dumbfoundingly unrealistic. You often speak about the importance of engaging readers, of valuing, investing and giving a voice to readers. Dean and Joe: you have turned your backs on us,” read the letter.

The letter goes on to say that newsroom staff do not feel valued, and they feel that management lacks transparency. Morale is at an all-time low, because staffers do not feel valued and they are afraid of losing their jobs. The big question is how management will respond. It seems unlikely they will backpedal, but they need to do something to fix the situation.  

Apple Offers an Annual Subscription Option for $99

Streaming music competition continues to grow with Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, Tidal and others all vying for their share of the market. Apple Music is hoping to attract subscribers with a new $99 annual subscription, says Phys Org. A monthly subscription is $9.99 a month, but an annual subscription would bring the price down to $8.25 month, making it one of the lowest price offerings. Pandora Plus, which is $4.99 a month, offers an annual subscription at $54.89 per year. Pandora Premium, which is $9.99 a month, is also available annually at $109.89. Both of Pandora’s annual pricing is not available through the App Store, however, presumably because of the so-called Apple tax.

Regardless of which streaming music service you prefer (I like Spotify), an annual subscription option is attractive. It not only saves the subscriber money, but it eliminates the monthly payment. As subscriptions become more prevalent, it can be a bit of work to keep all of your subscriptions straight. We wish more services – like Netflix and Hulu – had an annual subscription option too.

Vimeo Nixes OTT TV Subscription Service

For the last few years, Vimeo has talked about starting an over-the-top TV service. We last reported on Vimeo in November. In the parent company’s November 2, 2016 shareholder letter, the company said it was working on the OTT service and had hired three experienced executives to seek out quality content for that project. The company has changed its mind, according to ReCode.

ReCode quotes a Vimeo PR rep in a June 26 article: “Vimeo has confirmed that it has decided not to proceed in offering a subscription-based original program service scheduled to begin in ’18.'”

It is not clear if Vimeo bailed because there is so much competition in the OTT market, or if they changed their strategy for different reasons.

Toronto Star Shutters Star Touch, Its Tablet App

Two years and $23 million later, the Toronto Star is shuttering its tablet app, Star Touch, effective August 1. It will be replaced with a more versatile app that will work on both tablets and smartphones. The announcement came in a memo to staff from Torstar president and CEO John Boynton that was reprinted by Canada Land.   

“While Toronto Star Touch is an editorial success and has developed a loyal audience since its launch in 2015, the overall numbers of readers and advertising volumes are significantly lower than what the company had forecast and than what are required to make it a commercial success,” Boynton said. “Although we are obviously disappointed with the financial results of Toronto Star Touch, we can be justifiably proud of the innovative and award-winning product that we created.”

The change will result in the loss of 30 jobs, 29 full-time positions and one part-time position. Boynton said the company will launch a promotional campaign in July to encourage users to download the new, universal, as-yet-unnamed app.

“As we are all aware, digital is our future and we must evolve – and rapidly – to provide our customers with news and information where and when they want it. I am confident that we have the staff, the talent and the skills to do just that,” said Boynton.

$23 million was a heck of a price tag for an experiment, an unrecoverable sunk cost.