The Amazon Kindle DX: Can It Save The Newspaper Industry?
The newspaper industry has taken a big hit recently and is now looking to the Kindle DX to pull it out of the trenches. As subscriptions hit an all-time low, newspapers have had to make huge budget cuts. For some publications, this means laying off part of the workforce or cutting sections out of the paper. For other papers, it means going to a weekly rather than daily paper. But some newspaper publishers, such as the New York Times, have started looking to the digital world to save their print. While most newspapers are now online, a few have decided to make the switch to the Kindle as well. This has brought about quite a debate among analysts.
According to some people, the newspaper industry is also long overdue of such a change. Ever since the first edition of the Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick was published in 1960, the printed paper has been around since then to keep a record of society’s everyday happenings. However, with the advent of the digital age, the newspaper business simply needs to conform with these changes, much as other industries have been doing. Resistance to new technology can lead to more losses while choosing to just go with the flow could perhaps lead to a rekindled interest in the newspaper as a source of everyday news.
On the other hand, there are also those who don’t quite agree with the move of creating e-versions of newspapers for the Kindle DX. Publications who want to retain readership have already turned to publishing online versions of the paper and earn money from site advertisers. So why then would people pay just to have Kindle versions of the same stuff that they can find online for free? Those who see the logic in this argument believe that having subscriptions sold for the Amazon Kindle DX would be a waste of time, effort, and resources on the publisher concerned, and could be the last straw that may bring about the demise of the industry. Already, blogs, which is considered pseudo-journalism, are becoming a good source of news.
If more newspapers do turn to the Kindle DX to save their publication, it may spark a renewed interest in the news. The Kindle is already catching on as a phenomenon in the reading world, allowing people to take thousands of their favorite books wherever they go, as any Kindle DX review will tell you. By offering live updates to popular subscriptions, the Kindle makes it easier than ever to read the paper. You don’t have to get yours out of the mailbox on cold mornings and you don’t have to worry about the environmental impact of all that paper. You don’t even have to wait for your computer to boot up in order to read your favorite news column. You just turn on the Kindle and it’s right there waiting for you.
We really can’t say if Amazon Kindle DX will be able to save the newspaper industry, but to whatever degree or extent, this might be the only chance they could take advantage of.
