When it launched in early 2014, the app was mean to grab "a younger, mobile-savvy audience" (read: millennials) with a curated article list and lower price that was about half the monthly cost of the next cheapest digital-only subscription. According to the Times' own post mortem article, the app "never quite took off" and the paper actually dropped the subscription fee entirely last year in an attempt to pick up more users.

While NYT Now itself is going away, the app's editors and developers have pointed out that many of the design elements have informed recent redesigns of the paper's main mobile offering. Features like the Morning, Evening and Weekend briefings will migrate to the NYTimes app and NYT Now subscribers should see an email soon with an offer to switch to a standard Times digital subscription, otherwise the NYTimes app still only offers 10 free articles a month. The Mini Crossword, however, is still free to play.