Print media’s DX factor: New Kindle may help in transition to Digital Age
E-readers are working their way into society, as people are reading books, newspapers, magazines and blogs on thin, lightweight devices that hold up to 1,500 items. The Amazon Kindle DX was unveiled last week and will hit the market sometime this summer.
The DX boasts the largest screen; the screen on the DX is 2.5 times larger than the Kindle 2, which became available earlier this year, making it a better device for reading newspapers and magazines. The DX will sell for just shy of $500 and hold up to 3,500 items.
The winter 2008 edition of Global Journalist magazine (www. globaljournalist.org) poses the question: "Will E-Readers Save Newspapers?" The short answer, as discussed during a recent meeting of the Digital Publishing Alliance — of which Stephens Media, publisher of the Review-Journal and reviewjournal.com, is a member — is "no." The e-reader alone will not rescue print journalism. It could play an important role, though, especially if subsidized pricing that includes annual subscriptions puts e-readers in more hands.
The New York Times, The Boston Globe and The Washington Post will be available on the Kindle DX with special pricing, an Amazon statement shows. Details haven’t been released, but some rumor sites on the Web are saying to expect the price for the DX to be about $199 with the newspaper subscription.
The Review-Journal is available on the Kindle 2 for $5.99 per month after a free, 14-day trial.
Amazon’s Kindle Store is one of the strong points of the device, as the built-in 3G connectivity makes it easy to browse more than 275,000 books, 37 newspapers (28 in the United States), 29 magazines and 1,500-plus blogs. Most books sell for $9.99 or less, with blogs costing a buck or two per month. Amazon doesn’t release sales figures for the Kindle, which makes it hard to monitor growth. I’ve seen people reading on Kindles during intermissions of hockey games at the Orleans Arena and at a baseball game at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Mo. I answered questions about the Kindle from curious passers-by when reading on it at an outdoor café in Newport Beach, Calif. People know what they are, have friends who use them and are contemplating plunking down $359 for one of their own.
One thing that differentiates an e-reader from a laptop, netbook or tablet computer is the screen. E-readers use a technology called electronic ink. E-ink closely mimics ink on paper, and since it isn’t backlit, they are more easily read in bright light.
Take a computer outside and it’s hard to read the screen, but it’s just the opposite with an e-reader. I’ll have more on e-Readers next week.
***
A big thank you to all my readers. Today’s column marks The Online Guy’s 11th anniversary.
Share your Internet story with me at agibes@reviewjournal.com.