Kindle has been in the market for a little more than a month and the list of Magazines that has joined the subscription list at Amazon though small it's growing. Today I received my monthly subscription to Consumer Reports and that reminded me that the bookshelf where I keep all issues of this magazine together with other magazines like National Geographic, Smart Phone and Pocket PC Magazine and PC Magazine, it's full. I could recycle them but I collect them. And it's not just that I collect them it's that sometimes I use them as material when I'm doing some research. So, looking at my magazine bookshelf I decided to send the Editors of these magazines this letter:

Whom it may concern:
I'm a current subscriber of your magazine which I love and been subscribed for the last 5 years. But it's time to move on and use the new technology available. I recently bought the Kindle, the eBook reader from Amazon, and I would like to see your magazine added to the list of magazine subscriptions available for download into my Kindle.
I know that you offer an online subscription but the point is that you need a PC to access it while using the Kindle you don't need that. Magazines are sent to each subscriber using the wireless connection available in each Kindle. And each magazine is DRM protected so files can't be freely copied.
I love your magazine but it's occupying a valuable space in my house and going digital I can keep hundred of issues in my Kindle. And not only that, going digital using this new Amazon service your company will help to save our planet using less paper.

Please, add your magazine to Kindle Magazine Subscription list at Amazon!


Regards,
Frank J Garcia
Current Subscriber
Microsoft MVP on TabletPC and UMPC
http://www.ultramobilepc-tips.com

I know that many of you are interested in this topic so I'm planning to post back the answer of each of the magazines contacted by me. I also invite you to do the same with your subscriptions. Remember, you are helping to save a tree by going digital!

Smartphone and PocketPC Magazine answered my Yesterday Open Letter about having their subscription available for Amazon Kindle.

Hi Frank,
Thanks for the email.
Hope you really aren't giving up on print! Print magazines need print customers to be viable. Many people prefer the physicality of print media.
If magazines become only electronic, they really become a different animal and should be rethought so they best are suited for the media in question. Also, like many publishers, we are geared towards producing print. It would be hard to be competitive in the electronic world as we are constituted.

Having said that, I just contacted Amazon through Customer Service link and asked them what needed to be done to sell our magazine via Kindle.

Thanks

Hal Goldstein
Exec Editor/Publisher
Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine
www.PocketPCmag.com

A really good news. like I said to Hal, at this moment the amount of companies selling magazines for Kindle is small but if you check that list, you will find that we are talking about companies like Time, Forbes and Fortune. To have a magazine like Smartphone and Pocket PC Magazine in that short list within those giants and taking in consideration the profile of those reading eBooks could represent a huge increase in subscription sales and prestige.

A really good news. like I said to Hal, at this moment the amount of companies selling magazines for Kindle is small but if you check that list, you will find that we are talking about companies like Time, Forbes and Fortune. To have a magazine like Smartphone and Pocket PC Magazine in that short list within those giants and taking in consideration the profile of those reading eBooks could represent a huge increase in subscription sales and prestige.

Magazines get most of their revenue from advertising. How well do you think that adverts would work in electronic magazines?

In the Kindle very well! you have to insert them in the shape of text adds with links, Google Style. Every time you click in a link it sends you using the Kindle EDVO connection to the seller page!

If you have wireless is on....but probably it is off in order to save battery power ;)

In the Kindle very well! you have to insert them in the shape of text adds with links, Google Style. Every time you click in a link it sends you using the Kindle EDVO connection to the seller page!

Do you think the advertisers would feel the same? I really do think that the opinion of advertisers (who are the major source of income for the magazine's publisher) is key to the success or failure of "e-magazines".

I think kindle is better suited for daily newspapers, since the prompt over-the-air delivery of the magazines isn't that critical. Also I really like the presentation of different magazine, which is hard to duplicate on the kindle using current technology. That being said, I do wish to see Economist on the Kindle...

I was actually thinking of the same thing. Good idea!

a link that take you to the advertiser's site has got to be appealing for them.

I have been hoping for new magazines.

-d

Kindle has been in the market for a little more than a month and the list of Magazines that has joined the subscription list at Amazon though small it's growing.

Hmm, they had 8 magazines back on 11/19 when they launched and they still have 8. What indicates that it is growing?

I think kindle is better suited for daily newspapers, since the prompt over-the-air delivery of the magazines isn't that critical. Also I really like the presentation of different magazine, which is hard to duplicate on the kindle using current technology.

I don't know, I've been subscribed to Readers Digest since November and I really like it in Kindle format. I will say that I tried Forbes and didn't care for it at all on the Kindle.

Bob

I have read a news from Amazon saying that in this last month they added two new magazines.

I have read a news from Amazon saying that in this last month they added two new magazines.

They added two newspapers. The magazines I see are the same they had at launch. Maybe they just haven't added them to the list yet.

-d