Skywritings

Reading about the death of newspapers – in the New York Times – on my Kindle

// March 17th, 2009 // internet, ramblings

Since owning a Kindle, I have paid for more printed news content in a year than I have in the whole of my literate life. Oh, I’ve been a reader of news for a long time, I just read what I find… and spending as much time in airports as I do, I find a lot. I stole a Wall Street Journal from a sleeping guy once. I got a shoe shine in ATL on a long sit just so I could read a Financial Times. And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve lifted the complimentary copy of papers outside the premium members door in hotels.
But, since owning a Kindle… I pay a monthly price for The Baltimore Sun (5.99) a few NYTimes and Wall Street Journals a week (.75 each) and a handful of magazines. While certainly not enough to cover the operating expenses of these papers, it is significantly less cost to them. Could the industry as a whole gather their forces to market this medium? Could the power players subsidize the cost of Kindles to its premium print subscribers along with a contract on digital subscriptions?
I enjoy consuming my news digitally and look forward to more Kindle versions before the print Papers go out of business all together. And no inky fingers!