With the current downturn of the traditional newspaper, more and more people turn to online solutions for their daily news needs. The burgeoning need for sales not at print level to maintain the growth of all major news providers, is becoming more dependent on online subscriptions via devices like the Kindle. It appears though that a lot of the major newspapers are happy with the way the Kindle, and many other e-readers in the same category, handle their content.

A few publishers are forging alliances with consumer-electronics firms to support e-readers that meet their needs. Chief among their complaints about the Amazon portable reading gadget is the way Amazon acts as a middleman with subscribers and controls pricing. In addition, the layout isn’t conducive to advertising

So not only is this about the Kindle, other players are stepping into the e-news arena, with digi-books!

Seriously, I’ve never really been an avid newspaper reader, sometimes they advantageously cross my path and I skim though them. I like the cryptic crossword, and the comics, but I can live without it. I get my news fix via RSS on my mobile, and that does me fine. People I know that have the Kindle or other e-readers, and even those that have taken them up out of necessity are applauding them now!

What it comes down to it here though, traditional news providers are looking for ways to monetize news outlets that they initially jumped into, as the popularity of the internet grew, without really knowing how to financially leverage the resource.

The NYTimes today, is reporting that the push for a better way to get the news out there in this electronic age is coming, albeit via a different device manufacturer!

One thing I don’t understand here is why you would make an e-reader less portable by making it the size of any current paper magazine.

The tablet-style devices play a role in the debate about charging for electronic content. Some publishers regret not charging people for newspaper and magazine subscriptions on the Web. They believe mobile devices — whether it’s the iPhone or e-readers — are new enough that consumers won’t balk at paying for the digital content.

The statement above is really optimistic. Sorry, News is all information that’s been free for so long now,online, why would people think it’s acceptable to start paying for it. The fact that the technology has progressed faster than the industry, is not an excuse for news providers to start charging for their lack of ability to integrate advertising successfully into the new e-reader formats being offered.

The take on this has been rather varied, and  the  larger e-reader is possibly appearing as soon as next week, it’s an interesting mash up of analog and digital, and some progressive thinking in these recessive times.

In the end though, the question is, will I pay a dollar a day for a newspaper, that is environmentally unsound on so many levels, or pay for an online subscription to the same news? The really exciting thing here is the development of new devices to meet the perceived needs of the current news providers!

Big-Screen e-Readers May Help Save Newspapers – NYTimes.com

TechCrunch

SlashGear

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