Take the ‘paper’ out of the newspaper Hrush
Amazon is all set to announce a new version of its Kindle product at a press event later today. Amazon remains tight-lipped, and has provided no advance details for today’s event. According to The Wall Street Journal, the new Kindle will be significantly larger than the current model and will be aimed squarely at replacing textbooks and news media.
Six American universities are thought to be enrolled in a pilot program for the new Kindle. Lev Gonick from Case Western Reserve University confirmed to the Journal that Amazon will provide the university with large screen Kindles next year. These Kindles will be offered to students taking chemistry, computer science and other courses with textbook content pre-installed.
The Journal also reports that Arthur Sulzberger Jr., Chairman of the New York Times Co., will be sharing the stage with Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos, at today’s event; lending credibility to the recent spate of rumours that the new Kindle will be partnering with newspapers to deliver the news digitally.
The New York Times ran a recent feature on how large screen digital readers could save the beleaguered newspaper industry. In addition to Amazon, News Corp, Hearst Corp and Plastic Logic are all said to be readying digital reading devices for launch sometime this year.
About three years ago, I was out for dinner and engaged in a furious debate about the future of the newspaper–I was firmly of the opinion that personalised, digital devices or electronic paper would replace today’s newspapers. Across the table, my friend countered with nostalgia about the feel and sound of a newspaper at a breakfast table being irreplaceable.
At that time, I estimated that newspapers, in their current avatar, would be largely irrelevant within the decade. My nostalgic friend stated that such a thing would never happen, that the relentless march of technology could never invent a replacement for the newspaper.
I was wrong–it isn’t going to take a decade to wipe out the newspapers. Technology has already rendered newspaper industry’s business models obsolete; and now technology is readying new devices and inventing new business models for the daily press.
Sentiment and nostalgia cannot combat business reality. Clay Shirky put it brilliantly in a recent post, Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable
When someone demands to know how we are going to replace newspapers, they are really demanding to be told that we are not living through a revolution. They are demanding to be told that old systems won’t break before new systems are in place. They are demanding to be told that ancient social bargains aren’t in peril, that core institutions will be spared, that new methods of spreading information will improve previous practice rather than upending it. They are demanding to be lied to. There are fewer and fewer people who can convincingly tell such a lie.
Enjoy your ‘paper,’ while it lasts, because it won’t last forever.
With reference to newspapers published IN India, I do think you are wrong in your estimate that newspapers in their current avatar would be irrelevant within a decade.
A few facts ….The total number of newspapers published in the country reached 35,595 newspapers by 1993 (3,805 dailies). The growth has been substantial in recent years. The country consumed 99 million newspaper copies as of 2007. I do think that there might be some inroads by a few players in adopting digital readers, but taking into account the snails pace with which things progress in India, we have a looooong way to go. Cost factor being one block and adoption by the masses being another.
Is this discussion about the supposed-forced-obsolescence of newspapers or a new way to disseminate news and information?
Dhruv–I guess it’s a little bit of both. I don’t believe the obsolescence of newspapers is "supposed" at all. The US market, which is admittedly ahead of India in its evolution, is clearly demonstrating what the future of the traditional newspaper is–bankruptcy.
Mimo may be right, but Indian newspapers would do well to start preparing themselves for the inevitable future now.
Well there’s always that one differentiating factor that will remain (and this is an old one that no one has been able to crack so far) –
Can you pack your lunch in it?
Just kidding. I think the paper variant of the newspaper may disappear or certainly atleast diminish in volume in the short run, but the actual objective, which is to deliver news, commentary and objective (hah!) analysis, will remain. The medium of receiving the news feed then merely becomes a choice for the consumer.
Those who want their digital paper equivalents will opt for Kindle-like devices, and those who still need something to wrap their lunch may still want their regular old fashioned newspaper.
Interestingly (and I may be an extremist in this view) news companies actually should be worried about their diminishing importance in society at large – not just the media that they deliver their content on.
It appears (and social networks may be to blame) that people are less and less interested in the news these days. Now I don’t have the facts to back this up – but arguably twitter got more concrete, believable news snippets out about the recent Mumbai terror attacks than most of our highly reputed (hah!) news channels. And they got it out much much faster, direct from the scene, and again arguably to a much larger global audience.
So, then, in these days of Instant Citizen Journalism who needs the big news corps? It’s not like their credibility holds stead any longer.
You didn’t just say that, did you?
About time we look at moderating the comments around here?
@usha Moderating comments from the author ?