Can e-readers save newspapers?

[Spectrum]

interesting article in "The World in 2010" :

Nov 13th 2009
From The World in 2010 print edition
By Tom Standage

Eventually, maybe, but not in 2010

It is a seductive idea. As newspapers struggle with declining advertising revenues and the rise of the internet, a new technology arrives just in time to save them. E-readers hold out the prospect of allowing newspapers to shut down their expensive printing presses and switch to much cheaper electronic delivery. Already, people are prepared to pay to receive newspapers and magazines (including The Economist) on the Kindle, even though they seem reluctant to pay for news on the web. An e-reader can be taken anywhere, after all, and provides a better reading experience than a web browser. Might e-readers provide a new model for newspapers in the digital age?

you can read complete story at:

http://www.economist.com/theworldin/...4742606&d=2010

[rcuadro]

With Calibre there is no need to pay for any news. You can take them with you just as easy as you can with a paid Kindle subscription

[HansTWN]

That is, of course, true -- for the moment, since major news providers seem to be planning to make their news "pay-only". Sure, there will be plenty of free news floating around. But I still miss the real "newspaper experience" which a large reader could provide. I wouldn't mind paying a few dollars a month to get that and quality journalism auto-delivered every day.

[Phogg]

Newspapers, wirth their non interactive model of dissemination are being left by the way as their old subscribers die or move on.

I left newspapers for the web in 1998. At this point, if there is not a discussion forum, I move on to a site covering the same story that has one. And there are ALWAYS several. A writer who can not correct or defend his coments on the news isnt good enough.

[fugazied]

E-readers, no. But tablets, phones and other mobile computers yes.

For them to survie they will have to offer paid subscriptions which receive a full colour version of the newspaper, with embedded media throughout. So you click on a news article and from that article you can interactively see video, analysis, other user comments, related topics. In a more advanced way than with current websites. eg. this http://www.minonline.com/news/12862.html

That kind of higher level of interactivity isn't supported by ereaders. More advanced mobile computers with color screens and faster processors will do it. Most people don't buy newspapers because they don't want paper and plain text. The e-readers take away the paper part but the format of the newspaper is basically the same.

[Solitaire1]

Originally Posted by fugazied

E-readers, no. But tablets, phones and other mobile computers yes.

For them to survie they will have to offer paid subscriptions which receive a full colour version of the newspaper, with embedded media throughout. So you click on a news article and from that article you can interactively see video, analysis, other user comments, related topics. In a more advanced way than with current websites. eg. this http://www.minonline.com/news/12862.html

That kind of higher level of interactivity isn't supported by ereaders. More advanced mobile computers with color screens and faster processors will do it. Most people don't buy newspapers because they don't want paper and plain text. The e-readers take away the paper part but the format of the newspaper is basically the same.

One of the reasons I don't get the newspaper is that I don't want to deal with having to get rid of the paper afterward. I would be willing to pay for an electronic version of my local paper as long as:

- It's delivered in a format suitable for my reader. For example, rather than trying to duplicate the experience of the printed paper, give me several format options for my e-newspaper (plain text with no illustrations, fully formatted PDF with illustrations, and so on). With electronic versions, it is possible to automatically generate several versions from the same source document.

- Subdivide the paper into topical sections so I can choose the parts of the paper that I want, and disregard the parts that I don't want. Another reason that I don't get the local paper is that I have little interest in most of the paper, I'd rather just get the parts that I want.