This announcement of a PDF edition was our first step into digital in July of 2016. We grew from there and our full function website now offers the complete paper to subscribers. We are, as always, a print publication first.
Over the past six months, since creating and launching The Syncopated Times, I’ve been most concerned with publishing a paper that is attractive, informative, and fun. My early stated goal of creating a more economical subscription option for readers outside the United States was necessarily put on hold while I made sure I got the paper part right.
My other concern was that I didn’t want to “give away the store,” since my content cannot be free. My whole month is invested in designing, writing, editing, and laying out a publication that I am determined to make a source of information, entertainment, surprise, and delight for all who turn its pages. My staff writers also must be paid. I can’t do that without compensation.
So, while I won’t regularly be offering online content from The Syncopated Times, I have settled on a solution for international subscribers who want to read the paper without spending an exorbitant amount of money. Subscribers outside the US who want The Syncopated Times may now receive a monthly PDF download link, sent by email, for the price of a US subscription. The PDF is a more compact file than the one I send to the printer, but is otherwise identical.
This new digital subscription option is available through PayPal only. When someone outside the US pays for a subscription by PayPal at the US rate, I will send the files to the subscriber’s PayPal email address—or to another email address if one is specified. I merely must ask that all who receive the digital edition not redistribute it nor publish the download links.
A PayPal button is at the top of this page: syncopatedtimes.com. Merely choose the US yearly or two-year option to receive the digital subscription if you are outside the US. Pay by PayPal also by visiting: www.paypal.me/syncopatedtimes.
I am of course delighted to continue to provide the paper edition of The Syncopated Times by mail to all international subscribers who wish to receive it. —A.S.
