October 30th, 2007
by NathanWe’re pulling the plug on Newshutch
Sorry we’ve been so quiet lately. We didn’t know when we be able to diagnose let alone fix things, and then, when we started thinking about shutting down, we wanted to be sure before we said anything.
We lost the hunger
The main problem we’ve been facing is that none of us were passionate about Newshutch anymore. Yes, the move to Joyent has been problematic1, but we’re glad it was because it forced us to face facts.
I sincerely believe that scrappy upstarts can upset and displace entrenched competitors. If we’ve learned nothing else from the last ten years it’s that creative destruction is alive and well.2
However, the key ingredient for the underdog is passion. We started working on Newshutch in early 2006 because we were scratching an itch. Like email clients, RSS clients make more sense as web applications. At the time the only big web based reader was Bloglines, and it remains unbelievably hideous to this day. These days however, to meaningfully compete with Google Reader, AND Bloglines, AND who knows how many other RSS readers, we’d have to do nothing else but work on Newshutch, and frankly, it wouldn’t be worth it. The problem of developing a usable web based RSS reader has been reasonably solved, so we’d rather pour ourselves into new projects where we could make a bigger impact.
No regrets
We thought it would be emotionally hard to shut down what we’d worked so hard on, but instead it’s liberating. Now we’re free to find new things to work on that will be even better than Newshutch.
One of the things that bothers me about Newshutch and other readers is that they?re great at hitting you with tons of information, but I’d rather be hit with the right information. Better still, I’d rather have tools to help me create things. Whatever we work on next will place a higher value on creation than consumption.
Another reason shutting down feels right is that it doesn’t feel like failure. We set out to make a newsreader that didn’t suck and we succeeded. Even better, we learned more about technology, design, project management, customer service, and business in one year than we would have in ten years at a normal job. At a typical job you’ve got an army of system administrators, marketers, and project managers, to back you up and nobody takes the heat when things go wrong. When you’re responsible for a live application from top to bottom you get smarter faster.
Even if you know you’ll fail (and you should always assume that you will) you should still try to build a product for yourself. Looking back it was almost hubris to attempt to build a newsreader (they’re very resource intensive), in Rails (Doug was a Java guy), with just two people, but we’re glad we did. We may have failed but what we’ve learned more than offsets any sting of failure.
What’s next?
Newshutch will shut down on November 10th. Before then, we’ll begin shutting down pieces of functionality until only OPML feed list export and account management remain. That should be enough time for you to migrate to other feed readers.3 The Newshutch blog will remain up indefinitely and we hope that you’ll stay subscribed to it because we’ve got a few more posts coming on the joys and pitfalls of building a web service. Also, we’ll announce future projects on the Newshutch blog (and at nathanbowers.com). Micah has already launched a new personal productivity service called Making the Chain, so be sure to check it out.
Thanks
Thanks to everyone who complained about, contributed to, commented on, and used Newshutch. That’s another hidden benefit to starting your own web service, you hear from all sorts of people, and usually they’re pretty cool. We’d still love to hear from you, so if any of you have ideas about what we should do with our codebase, or what you’d like to see us work on next, fire away in the comments.
- Joyent is a fine company with good service, but they weren’t right for us. This issue deserves its own post, but the bottom line is that Newshutch was too resource intensive for the three Accelerator slices we had, but to get enough Accelerators we’d end up paying more than we did for dedicated hosting. We weren’t in the Joyent sweet spot. If you start small with Joyent and scale up organically, that works fine. If you’re Twitter and have huge scaling needs and budget to match, also fine. If you are already up and running somwhere else, think long and hard before pulling up stakes to move to a new environment. Risking a move like that was a horrible decision on our part, but on the other hand I’m glad we did it because it forced us to make a decision about our future.
- See also: The entertainment industry vs. Apple, Detroit vs. Japan, IBM vs. Microsoft, Yahoo vs. Google, The Pony Express vs. the telegraph, etc…
- I still don’t really like any of the other readers out there. Google Reader seems to have the best functionality, but it’s just so damn ugly! Content viewed in a feed reader should be even easier to read than the feed publishers’ website, but every other web based feed reader botches design and typography so badly that it’s invariably worse. If I was Google I’d drive a cargo container of cash to 37signals’ or Dan Cederholm’s offices and say “Congrats, you’re the new EVP of UI at Google.” Since that probably won’t happen, your best bet is probably to use Google Reader with Jon Hicks’ theme.
October 30th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
Hey, thanks for giving it a shot! Y’all were great, and I hope you can parlay the once-awesome Newshutch into fabulous jobs that enrich you as you deserve.
It would be fine with me if you kept the blog alive for a bit, so we can swap thoughts about which pale imitation to cleave to…
October 30th, 2007 at 11:12 pm
Wow, this is a real shame, I loved Newshutch. I cannot help but wonder what will become of the code? It was a beautifully executed web application - thank you and best of luck!
October 30th, 2007 at 11:57 pm
Man that’s a bummer. Good to see you’re staying positive and looking up though. A few days ago I exported my OPML and prepared to switch to google reader because newshutch was acting very unreliably. But I hated Google Reader, and came crawling back here. Clicking on this bookmark is just…automatic. I suppose I’ll give it another shot with Jon Hicks’s skin this time. It’s sad, because in my opinion you had all of your competitors beat by a mile in terms of usability and readability.
Also, I run my Quizlet site on a Joyent accelerator. I’m starting to hit some performance problems, so I’d be interested in the blog post you suggested.
Last - I have the same feeling as Brian LeRoux. If there’s anyway I could continue using Newshutch, I’d pay to do it. I’d even install it on my own server if I had to.
October 31st, 2007 at 12:25 am
I’ve been frustrated with Newshutch for a while. So while I’m really disappointed it’s closing down I really appreciate being informed what’s going on.
I still think it’s the best/enjoyable reader out there. Wouldn’t you consider letting someone else take it over?
October 31st, 2007 at 12:35 am
Oh man, I’m so gutted to hear this. I’ve tried many other news readers, and not one comes close to Newshutch in terms of looks and usability.
So, I guess my question is, where should I go now?
Has anyone got any suggestions for decent online news reader? Is there anything else out there that doesn’t suck like a big fat sucky thing?
You’re right that news readers should be online, just like mail. However, I don’t use an online email client - why? because none of them even come close to being as usable as their desktop equivalents (and before you say “GMail”, don’t - you don’t want to get me started just how awful GMail is, in just so many ways). So I just stick with Mail, Thunderbird and an IMAP email account. I also didn’t use an online news reader until Newshutch for just the same reason, and then guys came along and gave us the best newsreader, online or on the desktop.
I understand your decision, and I’m impressed you managed to make it, as I know how hard it can be to give up on things you’ve worked so hard on; however, I’m now in a state of desperation, and will have to start frantically searching the web for something else to use (or working out how the hell I can get Mail to import an OPML file).
Anyway, thanks so much for providing a great service, I’ve enjoyed using it greatly. It wasn’t perfect, but it was certainly the best out there by a long way.
October 31st, 2007 at 12:37 am
Oh, I also echo what others have said. What will become of the code?
It would be so seriously seriously seriously awesome if you guys were to open-source it, so people could run their own Newshutch servers.
If you weren’t up for that, it would also be pretty cool if you decided to sell licensed copies of the code for people to run.
October 31st, 2007 at 1:33 am
My I suggest another web-based feed reader for you to try http://www.trawlr.com/
It’s free, so why not import your OPML from newshutch and give it a whirl…
October 31st, 2007 at 2:06 am
Sorry to hear that, I really enjoyed using Newshutch. Now it’s back to the clunky offline aggregator again.
One question: could you maybe come up with a way to export flagged entries? I “bookmarked” a lot of posts for future reference that way, and it would be nice to still have access to them somehow when Newshutch is gone.
Good luck in all your future endeavours.
October 31st, 2007 at 2:25 am
Thanks Ben, I gave trawlr a try, but it’s just not what I’m looking for.
You don’t seem able to read full posts in the reader, it mixes posts from all feeds together, and lacks many other features I’ve come to love in Newshutch.
Any other suggestions?
October 31st, 2007 at 3:49 am
Sad news, although I actually expected it. That is why I made the switch to Google Reader last week (tried three times before but I just didn’t like it).
I must have tried at least five different services and Newshutch was always my favorite.
Best of luck with any and all projects ahead of you.
October 31st, 2007 at 4:39 am
really, really sad.
But I wish nothing but the best to you all and keep up the passion!
October 31st, 2007 at 8:06 am
Thanks for the great service you created. You’re right, its not a failure. The information you learned from this service is invaluable I am sure. I am back using a skinned version of google reader.
I am curious to hear some of the technical issue that you encountered when running Newshutch, specifically what caused the service to be unstable the last few weeks.
Thanks again guys. I hope you find major success with your next project(s).
October 31st, 2007 at 12:34 pm
Another note, we’ll probably get hammered with OPML exports, which is super resource intensive, so please be patient if you can’t get through right away.
October 31st, 2007 at 12:36 pm
Andrea, we probably won’t be able to accommodate you, sorry. It’s a bit laborious, but I would switch to “Flagged” View and just open the links I still found interesting into new tabs. Once you’ve got those tabs open, use the del.icio.us browser plugin to tag them “FromNewshutch” or something.
October 31st, 2007 at 2:23 pm
Hi Nathan, I’d like to chime back in that I’d love to know about any thoughts you guys have about keeping this wonderful application alive such as Open Sourcing the codebase. Creating an ecosystem for a very usable feed reading application creates a lot of opportunities outside of keeping up with the news. Once again, thank you for this service and best of luck to you.
October 31st, 2007 at 3:11 pm
Sad to see Newshutch go.:/ I hope, as someone have mentioned above, that you will consider open sourcing the codebase. I think that would be really great! It’s a great piece of software and I’d hate to see it disappear into /dev/null.
October 31st, 2007 at 4:02 pm
Sorry to see you go, and sorry to say that I jumped ship to Google Reader earlier this year - still had the Newshutch blog in the OPML that I brought over, so I saw this bit of news here. Newshutch is what got me hooked on RSS readers - I’m not sure whether to thank you or blame you.
Seriously though, I appreciate the work you all put into Newshutch, and best of luck with your future endeavours.
October 31st, 2007 at 4:28 pm
I will be sorry to see newshutch go. It has been my homepage since the moment I learned about it on lifehacker, and I think it is both elegant and well, I would almost say indispensable. I suppose I will have to learn to make do with another reader, but your efforts were certainly appreciated by many.
October 31st, 2007 at 5:27 pm
Sorry to see you go, folks!
Good luck with whatever you come up with next. I hope you’ll keep this blog up to date with fresh links to your new tools and toys.
October 31st, 2007 at 5:44 pm
I’m sad…
October 31st, 2007 at 9:43 pm
It was great service folks!
I tried many times before to move to Google Reader but Newshutch was just too good. Well, time has come to move to Google Reader.
Thanks much for providing wonderful service. Best of luck for your future endeavors.
October 31st, 2007 at 10:21 pm
It’s really disappointing that you are shutting down. This application was really great and simple to use.I tried to use other RSS readers, but could not leave NewsHutch. Anyway, do come up with another great application like this in the future.
All the Best
November 1st, 2007 at 12:45 am
I don’t suppose anyone has managed to get the greader skin working in Safari on Leopard?
I know this is an odd place to ask, but I’m desperate. The Newshutch guys are right, Google *seriously* need to get themselves a decent UI designer, they just suck so badly at it!
November 1st, 2007 at 3:19 am
Hi guys,
Just wish to echo the sentiments of everyone else here. I have been using News Hutch for coming on a year, after I first heard about it from The Web 2.0 Show. It is/was by far the simplest and easiest to use Feed Reader on the market, I tried switching back to Google Reader but it just didnt cut the mustard.
I am surprised at your decision to simply close, rather than look for a buyer or go the open source route. If the price was right I would buy it! I mean I am addicted to this service as I am sure are many others, so to not see it live on in some form would be surprising.
Look forward to maybe hearing about an alternative ending.
Best wishes,
Luke
November 1st, 2007 at 4:54 am
I for one am really sorry to hear this news, you guys have put together an excellent product that I use on a daily basis normally. Newshutch is what every other RSS reader should aspire to be. Well done and thanks for all the hard work you have put into this. Good luck in the future.
November 1st, 2007 at 5:07 am
Oh dead, that makes me sad. Newshutch was such a good RSS-Reader. Not as ugly as others and especially NOT GOOGLE.
Now your advice is “use Google Reader, it’s cool”. No, thanks. I search the web with Google, I “read” GoogleAds on each and every page on the web. But I don’t want to share any more informations with the “don’t be evil”-octopus.
Thanks for running Newshutch and all the best for your future plans. I will try this “trawlr”-thingie.
November 1st, 2007 at 7:24 am
Nathan - Your post made me think about Seth Godin’s latest book (The Dip). I’m excited to see what y’all make next.
November 1st, 2007 at 11:36 am
Just another post to say Newshutch will be missed. It’s the best feed reader that I’ve found yet and I agree with everyone else that it’s a lot more usable that Google Reader! I only wish I could download a copy of the software to install on my hosting, I’m dreading google reader *that* much!
All the best for the future and hopefully you’ll be happier with your next product
)
November 1st, 2007 at 12:03 pm
Damn shame.
Loved Newshutch…
Please keep us informed on your future projects; if Newshutch is anything to go by they will be fantastic…
Have fun, and thanks for all the fish.
Craig.
November 1st, 2007 at 1:35 pm
Wow. I didn’t expect that!
It’s a real shame, but I do understand where you’re coming from. If the passion isn’t there then it’s all just a chore.
I’ll really miss Newshutch — it’s by far the best reader I’ve used, and I think it’ll be hard to go back to the alternative now. Like others have mentioned, if the code ever made it’s way out into the wild it would be great…
November 2nd, 2007 at 1:25 am
What a shame! I will miss you
November 2nd, 2007 at 2:46 am
Just to say thanks for providing one of the best newreaders I’ve ever used. I can’t face having to use Google Reader, it’s horrible, horrible, horrible! I guess I won’t be reading so much news anymore
Best of luck with your future projects, you guys really understand how to make great user interfaces.
Rob
November 2nd, 2007 at 5:29 am
Are you not willing to sell newshutch?
November 2nd, 2007 at 6:03 am
Newshutch is the only RSS reader that I’m happy with. It’s in my mind the best one out there. Time to merge with the Google hivemind.
November 2nd, 2007 at 6:09 am
I’ll miss you guys
November 2nd, 2007 at 8:44 am
If you would open source the code or at least do something with it that would be very helpful. I had all my employees using it and would be great if I could install it at our office. I also think that your user base, which seem very passionate, would be able to take the code to the next level as well.
Release it under a OS license that allows us to make use of it and make it better, clean it up and continue the great system that you started.
Please!
November 2nd, 2007 at 11:17 am
Could you not put the service up for sale first? Maybe someone else would continue developing in your tracks? Or give it away! Don’t just shut it down!
November 2nd, 2007 at 11:45 am
Sure we’d be willing to sell Newshutch. Who’s buying?
November 2nd, 2007 at 12:23 pm
I’m bummed about it. I had just decided to leave Newshutch for a better reader on Monday. I asked my blog readers for a little help, and the response was overwhelmingly in favor of Google Reader. The tip here to install Jon Hicks’ theme was timely. I guess this is as close to the Newshutch experience as I can get right now.
I really would love to see Newshutch opened up. I can imagine it is tough to deliver this type of system under the load of so many users, but it would probably be blazing as a self-installed app with a low number of users to support.
But I know how fragrant the smell of dollar bills can be. If you do sell it, congratulations. If you open it up for us, thank you!
Good luck Nathan and Doug. Keep us all posted on your next endeavor.
November 2nd, 2007 at 8:23 pm
I need an elegant web based news reader - I have loved newshutch sine I heard about you on the Web 2.0 show - darn you for leaving me in the lurch.
However, the world needs passionate people who do quality work. Newshutch demonstrated both the passion and the quality. Great luck with what’s next.
November 3rd, 2007 at 12:33 am
I would be willing to buy newshutch
November 3rd, 2007 at 8:11 am
Newshutch was a great app, which I used for quite a while. I ended up switching back to NetNewsWire after I changed jobs. I look forward to keeping an eye on what you guys do in the future, I’m sure it will be great.
November 3rd, 2007 at 12:22 pm
Newshutch was and will be the best RSS reader!
I just hope Google Reader learns something from you,or even hires you!
Thanks for the great service guys. You succeeded in creating a beautiful RSS reader.
November 4th, 2007 at 9:25 pm
Thank while it lasted. This was by far my favorite RSS reader and have used it every since I discovered it when it first came out. Even tried switching to Google but always came back. Appreciated it while it lasted! Thanks.
November 5th, 2007 at 5:21 am
Sorry to see you stop the service, really used newshutch as my only rss reader and enjoyed it a lot!
Good luck with your future endeavors.
November 5th, 2007 at 5:54 am
Don’t suppose there’s an easy way to export the posts I’ve got flagged?
Best of luck it is a good app…
Cheers
Andy
November 5th, 2007 at 7:21 am
I would also be willing to buy.
November 5th, 2007 at 8:31 am
I loved the cleanness and simplicty of it. It did just what I want, and no more. Best of all, it didn’t hurt my eyes. I didn’t want to use any other and was satisfied with it (after trying so many before finally settling with Newshutch). What am I gonna do! *grabs hair*
Do pass it along, don’t just shut it down, puh-leeeease ?
That said, best of luck for the future.
November 6th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
Sad news indeed. Newshutch was easily the best newsreader available. Thanks a lot for what you’ve done, and good luck on your next projects.
November 6th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
Well, after a week of trying to use google reader, let me just re-iterate that Newshutch will be sorely missed. Even with the very clean theme that you recommended, google reader is half as usable and enjoyable as newshutch was, at best. I find that I’m already leaving feeds building for long stretches, whereas with Newshutch I would leap on every opportunity to see what was new. If anything or anyone finds a way to keep this running, please do so.
November 6th, 2007 at 4:45 pm
Crap! I’ve used Newshutch for ages but I’ve still been testing out others and none are worth it. Sorry to see you go but good luck with whatever comes next.
November 6th, 2007 at 8:32 pm
Wishing you the best.
November 7th, 2007 at 4:14 am
This is a real shame. I have migrated my feed list to trawlr but still think Newshutch is the best feed reader out there.
good luck on your future ventures.
November 7th, 2007 at 11:09 am
I’m still not over it.
I can’t go back to Google Reader or Netvibes ever, the bells and whistles are simple overwhelming and I suspect they can only be streamlined so much.
Trawlr failed to get feeds from the first site I tried, and was struck by catatonia while trying to upload my opml file. Then besides being ugly, the guys also failed to check out what the layout looks like in Opera and fix the design glitches.
My back-up plan was to use the feed aggregator that comes in my Opera browser, but now that I finally surmounted the idea of its bare homeliness to try and see if I could bear using that on a daily basis, I’ve realised it only loads teeny thumbnails of picture and excerpts of posts, while not sparing me large ad images.
Brrr.
Someone save Newshutch?
November 7th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
Thanks guys. I’ll miss Newshutch, but I really appreciate your efforts and look forward to whatever is next.
November 7th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
I was ready to publish a post in my weblog, telling about the test-drive I did in Google Reader and how fast I came back, crying for the simple elegance of Newshuch. Then I saw the message telling that the service will be shutdown.
I’m not probably willing to buy it, as someone suggested above, but I would certainly pay a fee to keep using it.
November 8th, 2007 at 8:21 am
Let me join the chorus of the disappointed and forlorn. I fully dug Google Reader when I first found it, but Newshutch was love.
Thanks for the outstanding work; sorry it didn’t work out for you. I understand, however, that your product can’t own you and sometimes you just have to move on.
November 11th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
At least release the source so others can continue your great work.
November 18th, 2007 at 1:22 am
Thanks for all services so far! Newshutch is definitely one of the best readers out there.
Why don’t open source the code? So everyone can improve it and run their own readers, something along the wordpress.com model?
November 20th, 2007 at 7:34 am
Thanks for the great work! I’ll miss Newshutch, it was easily the best RSS-reader that I have used so far. I’ll hope that you will consider releasing the source under an open source license so others can continue working on it.
November 23rd, 2007 at 1:19 pm
I had great use for Newshutch while it lasted, so let me give you a big pat on the back! Good luck with other ventures!
I guess I’ll have to use Google reader now, but I’m not looking forward to it.
November 29th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
Okay people, seems I was last to learn about this as usual. How do I get my feeds? I tried to log on but can’t get in? Any suggestions? Any help will be appreciated, thanks.