VG Nett reports that Amazon is about to launch an e-book reader for newspapers, in an attempt to salvage what is left of the paper based news media. Without the costs of distribution and printing, a paper such as the NY Times could be sold for as little as 90 NOK a month, far less than the cost of subscribing to the paper edition.
I’ve worked a few years in various newspapers, and thought about this since I first heard about e-book readers. An interactive e-book edition would provide most of the benefits of paper im terms of typography and the feel of reading a finished product (as opposed to the Internet, where there’s always more stuff to browse), and also have the benefits of the Internet, with multimedia content embedded in the news stories, advertising that is customised to the reader’s needs, and the possibility to update stories as they evolve.
Of course you get all of this online already, but for those of us who would miss the morning paper, e-books might become a good replacement. And there’s also the business part of things. Paying for content online is something most people won’t consider, but they happily pay 50 NOK for a ringtone on their mobile. So why not pay to get up to date news on a specialised reader? I’m looking forward to see what happens with this, and hopefully we’ll see e-papers in Norway in a few years.
