So, yes – you’ll have to trust him on this one. In a way, it’s the opposite of Instapaper: while Marco’s more popular app is what you make of it, The Magazine is Marco’s own vision. It’s about people who love technology, delivered as a curated collection of articles from great writers. Marco Arment’s The Magazine falls exactly under this aspect of writing. Marco Arment shipped today version 1.1 of The Magazine, which I reviewed when it first came out in October: I wrote a quick article that night, and then went back to reading – like many other nights before. It was a simple thing, but it reminded me of this: in the age of Twitter and real-time trends, Instapaper empowered its users to read at their own pace, with a different experience. Later, I switched to the Friends tab, and saw that some people I followed were saving and sharing old articles of mine. One day when I couldn’t sleep, I launched Instapaper and started reading. I was too tired to work from my iPad, and I didn’t have my MacBook with me. Last summer, I was stuck in a hospital bed for 22 days. I used Instapaper every day, but there’s one episode that I remember in particular. The reading experience itself was the basis of Instapaper’s design. It may be overused and obvious, but for me Instapaper was the embodiment of the “design is how it works” philosophy: instead of fancy features, Instapaper focused on one thing – text. Since I started using Instapaper in 2008, this app has changed the way I read.
And, in particular, the very first sentence: Instead, I’ll just link you to my review of Instapaper 4.0 from October 2011. I could give you a summary of Instapaper’s updates and why Marco’s vision always struck me as clear, honest, and solid. I could write about the design decisions behind it. I could say many things about Instapaper. I look forward to the future of Instapaper, but still – the first chapter of Instapaper’s life is closing today. I know Marco wouldn’t have sold Instapaper if he didn’t know its new owners would be a great fit. Marco says that Instapaper will live on at Betaworks, and I believe him. I wouldn’t put Instapaper in just anyone’s hands, and I know that they’ll do right by it. They have great engineering talent, great product direction, and plenty of experience running services at Instapaper’s scale. I’ve known Betaworks for years, and I’ve spent a lot of lunches at their office. I will continue advising the project indefinitely, while Betaworks will take over its operations, expand its staff, and develop it further. We’ve structured the deal with Instapaper’s health and longevity as the top priority, with incentives to keep it going well into the future. I’m happy to announce that I’ve sold a majority stake in Instapaper to Betaworks. Today, Marco Arment announced he’s sold “a majority stake” in Instapaper, his read-later service, to Betaworks.
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