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Barnes & Noble is now offering discounted NOOK Simple Touch, NOOK Color, and NOOK Tablets to customers that sign up for subscriptions to the New York Times or People Magazine.

Here’s how it works:

• Get a NOOK Simple Touch eReader for free with a 1-year NOOK subscription to the New York Times (at $19.99 per month).
• Get a NOOK Color for $99 ($100 off) with a 1-year subscription to the New York Times.
• Get a NOOK Tablet for $199 ($50 off) with a NOOK subscription to People Magazine (at $9.99 per month).

That New York Times subscription is going to set you back $240 over the course of a year, so this is only a really good deal if you were planning on subscribing anyway. Otherwise you can still pick up a NOOK eReader or NOOK Color for less than the price of a subscription.

But it’s an interesting move that could be the beginning of a new business model for tablet and eReader makers and digital content providers. After all, it’s sort of like paying for your hardware on an installment plan — much the same way that wireless carriers give you a phone for “free” or a low up-front price and then charge you for it slowly over the course of your 2-year service contract.

via The Verge