You may have noticed: The Mainichi Newspapers’ website, headquartered at Palaceside Building, relaunched on December 2. The new subscriber service “Aidedokusha Set” started together with a full renewal of “Mainichi jp,” now renamed “The Mainichi.” New features include a paper-viewer service that downloads the print edition to PC, tablet or smartphone.
Subscription price unchanged; Mainichi print subscribers who register get “print plus digital.” Up to five household members may view the digital edition and paper viewer.
This morning at home I read pages 1–3 of politics, economy and general news, then society — but could not finish columnist Yasushi Nosaka’s serial “Nanakorobi Yaoki” on page 16 of the Tokyo edition before leaving. I used to read it after evening work; I installed the paper viewer app on my smartphone, so on the subway commute I could read “Nanakorobi Yaoki.” I thought text might be small on phone rather than tablet, but zoom works well without awkward scrolling. (On Android) the menu offers Home, Page List, Page Nav, Article List, Search and More — including Back Numbers, Help, My News and Scrapbook. My News auto-lists articles in fields you care about; Scrapbook saves articles.
Up to five household devices at once is convenient. The advanced viewer shows final morning and evening editions from Hokkaido, Tokyo, Chubu (Nagoya), Osaka and Western (Fukuoka / Kokura) bureaus, plus regional pages nationwide (prefectural capitals except Okinawa). Read your hometown regional page, or Osaka crime news and mayor’s moves in detail. Extra editions are a bonus.
Most national morning final editions are “14th edition.” Where salarymen say “after five” and golfers “the 19th hole,” many newspapers call it the “15th edition.”
The new “Subscription Set” is easy to apply for after email registration as an “aidedokusha member”: ① Visit the PC news site top page. ② Click “Member Registration” upper right. ③ Click “Aidedokusha Member Registration.” ④ Enter the Mainichi ID email and follow instructions.
Details at http://mainichi.jp/info/. Web-only members with some feature limits also exist.