Kindle-ing For PapersThe lifeline that Amazon has extended to embattled newspaper publishers like the New York Times could very well help strangle them.
That's because Amazon, which yesterday introduced a large-screen version of its electronic Kindle reader, wants to be the Apple of the newspaper business.
Amazon will be dictating terms that effectively give the e-commerce giant most of the revenue, much the way Apple captured the lion's share of song sales from music labels.
At a showy Apple-esque event in New York yesterday, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos took to the stage to unveil the larger and more expensive Kindle DX, which boasts a bigger screen, more storage and other bells and whistles that make it better suited for viewing periodicals and textbooks.
It retails for a whopping $489
compared with $359 for the previous version.
And while dozens of newspaper publishers plan to sell Kindle subscriptions through Amazon, there could be very little upside.
Amazon controls the pricing and the relationship with the subscriber, leaving publishers with the scraps.
That is especially bad news for the Times, which finds itself scrambling to cut costs and raise capital as a result of the beating it's received due to the ad slowdown. For the first quarter, the company had just $34 million in free-and-clear cash available, though it said it has access to some credit lines.
Yesterday's move with Amazon shows how desperate the Times is to reach its audience, going to the point of giving up control of its revenue and subscriber information.
Not surprisingly, Amazon as a middleman has spurred some publishers and media companies, including Hearst Corp. and News Corp., to explore alternative e-readers. (News Corp. owns the Post.)
Representatives for the papers declined to comment on the financial terms, citing confidentiality agreements with Amazon. But Amazon is thought to get as much as 70 percent or more of any revenue.
One thing the Kindle still doesn't do: show ads. The DX is closer to the original newspaper layout and is better suited for displaying ads, but Amazon made no announcement about an ad-supported model.
Still, publishers are optimistic that the Kindle and a growing number of competing e-readers will allow them to return to the days of selling subscriptions and ads at levels that sustain their newsgathering operations.
Will The Greenwich Time's online readers pay the New York Times $13 a month for an ad-supported version when they can read local blogs and other newspapers for free?
Clearly Amazon is trying to show is this isn't going to be ad supported.
The Greenwich Time's online readers will
have to see how this all will shake out.
Will local news blogs become the voice of Greenwich?
PLEASE SEE:
KaChing !!!! Ka Ching !!!!
KaChing !!!! Ka Ching !!!!
This Is Great News For Greenwich Bloggers
The Greenwich Time Wants To Nickle And Dime It's Online Readers
Web Traffic For Greenwich Bloggers Is Going To Explode !!!!!
Christmas Has Came In May
Greenwich Post Staffers Are Dancing In The Streets As The Greenwich Citizen And Greenwich Time Move Toward Micro Payments
TMCnet
Steven R. Swartz, president of Hearst Newspapers and senior vice president of Hearst Corporation, recently referred to Amazon’s e-book tablet, the Kindle, when addressing workers at a pair of struggling Connecticut dailies that his company owns and operates – the Greenwich Time and The Advocate of Stamford.
In a group e-mail that was sent to employees Feb. 26 and obtained by TMCnet, Swartz said the papers must begin charging for access to online content in some way, and that it may look to Amazon’s new version of an e-book tablet – the Kindle 2 – to do that.
“We believe we must begin to provide greater differentiation between the content of our free Web sites and the content of our paid product, be that paid product read in print, on a digital device like Amazon’s Kindle, or online,” Swartz said.....
Now Here's The Punch Line.....
The Greenwich Time Wants You To Pay Hundreds Of Dollars For A Kindle Device, Before They Start Nickling And Diming You To Death
PLEASE SEE:
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