Super-sized Kindle on the way?
Today, Amazon is expected to unveil a new Kindle electronic book device with a larger screen that would be geared for textbooks, magazines and newspapers and possibly shake up the economics of multiple industries at once, according to news reports.
Leading up to its scheduled announcement at Pace University in New York, Amazon has not disputed reports in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and other publications that a larger Kindle is on tap. The most recent version of the Kindle was announced in February by company head Jeff Bezos (shown here).
The current device's screen, 6 inches on the diagonal, is more suited to paperback books than larger reading material. If Amazon creates a bigger device better suited for periodicals, it could help give newspapers and magazines a better way to sell digital versions of their content, the AP said.
Everyone on Read Street knows that I am not the biggest fan of the Kindle (that would be Nancy). But if the Kindle-saurus creates a new way to monetize the content of The Baltimore Sun and other newspapers, I'm all for it. The newspaper industry -- like other mass media -- has struggled financially in the Internet era, as websites such as Craigslist siphon off classified ad divert revenue and aggregators such as Google rip off news reports. This could be a way to attract readers who like the format of a newspaper, but dislike ink rubbing off on their hands.
Comments
My parents are older and not too tech savvy. They love newspapers, though, and I could see them using a Kindle DX.
Posted by: Kathy | May 6, 2009 11:38 AM
Quiet please. My Kindle is very upset that he's no longer the new kid on the block.
Posted by: Gail Farrelly | May 6, 2009 11:50 AM
The Kindle won't save old world newspapers because newspapers are an outdated delivery mechanism.
The problem is that Newspapers failed to innovate and are no longer the gatekeepers of news and content.
Don't blame Craigslist for doing a better job of selling things and don't blame Google.. If you don't want Google to index your news it is easy to exclude them.
Also if you don't want the links and referrals then why do you have all the social bookmarks and RSS feeds?
SOUR GRAPES. you sound bitter.. maybe it's time to retire and get out of the news business so you don't have to worry about these issues.
Posted by: William Dodder | May 6, 2009 1:49 PM
Kathy, a colleague mentioned that she was buying her mother a Kindle. But she had to first explain that it can hold an entire library of books -- her mom though the Kindle just held one book at a time!
William, sorry that it sounded like bitterness. I was just trying to state the underlying issues that newspapers face. I don't deny that newspapers have been slow to embrace the shift, and we have to be more responsive to readers. But we are hustling to change. At The Sun and other newspapers, more and more resources are being dedicated to the online world. This blog is one example, and you can expect much more in the near future.
Posted by: Dave | May 6, 2009 3:32 PM
I didn't find Dave's post bitter, just factual. This is a hard time for the newspaper industry as it struggles to find a new business model. In my view, the best blogs around (and I think that Read Street IS one of the best) are run by newspapers. It's ironic. The content is there; the challenge is to make it a profitable business. I hope that print newspapers survive. Hey, without newspapers, what can we stick on our heads when a sudden rainstorm arrives and we find ourselves without an umbrella? Not a Kindle, that's for sure.
Posted by: Gail Farrelly | May 6, 2009 4:57 PM