Newspapers at cost per page?

Reacting to the newspaper industry crisis, Shira Ovide of the Wall Street Journal Blog announces:

A top executive at Hearst, which publishes 16 newspapers including the Houston Chronicle and Seattle Post-Intelligencer, said the company is mulling how much of its online offerings to keep free, while reserving some content exclusively for people who pay.

This new pay model is something publishers have discussed for a while now and implementing it won’t be easy. As with reprint permissions, different rates for educational use and trade use are difficult to monitor. Journalist Alan D. Mutter offers his insights:

Judging from the terseness of the announcements, the statements seemed to be more aspirational than the result of lengthy and detailed strategic planning…It’s a journey publishers absolutely have to begin. After years of giving everything away for free on the web, it won’t be easy for them to start charging for at least some of the content they spend small fortunes to produce. But there is no other choice.

Warner Crocker in his blog sounds off on Hearst’s attempts at an e-reader. His readers also reflect on the increasing demand for electronic reading of news over print.

It’s difficult to say if these new strategies will pay off, but as more and more newspapers face closures, something does have to give. Time will tell if Hearst’s client will be willing to pay for the content they consume, and if more publishers take notice and change their own models.

 

 

Kindle love

My husband has had the Kindle since they first shipped. With our huge  built-in bookcase at its full capacity, he enjoys the ease of these virtual books. I’ve played around with it and definitely can see reading an entire book, although I wouldn’t necessarily read every kind of book on it. He likes the fact that many of his core text for his PhD program are available in Kindle format.

Joe Wikert and Evan Schnittman have great blogs listing implications digital readers will have on the market. And Josh Topolsky awaits the transformation of the reader into Web 2.0 compliance.

With a variety of uses, I think its fun that editors are using the ease of the Kindle and Sony Readers to save their backs in carrying once heavy handed manuscripts. This NY Mag article even equates the practice with going green.

And Kindle will definitely have competition. TeleRead blogger David Rothman introduces the latest technologies out of Taiwan.