I could see where it might, but there’s something… off about it, and I’m not sure what it is.
Yes, yes, I’m taking a webcomic’s in-strip business model concept seriously. Brain is Swiss cheese right now, remember?
5 thoughts on “I dunno: would this Amazon/Kindle/newspaper business model work?”
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I think that would be the cost overhead for a Kindle. 🙂
Well, as a kindle 2 owner, I’m not really sure. The new device is a step backwards for me because the existing one is about an inch too wide for my preference, so getting even wider isn’t a good thing. As it stands now, the thing won’t fit in any pocket I have. So I suppose it would be ok for those carrying a purse, or laptop bag. Also, being left handed, they ditched the buttons I actually use.
Having said that, for those for whom the size and weight increases aren’t a big deal, I still don’t think it’s going to be a savior to the newspaper industry. Because why do people still get the paper? For a lot of them it’s just to get the inserts, which you don’t get in the e-edition.
Speaking of, now there’s a business that might actually be profitable. Home delivery of, say, just the inserts and comics on Sunday, for half the price of a Sunday paper.
Haven’t you read Transmetropolitan yet?
I’ve written up the Chair Leg of Truth for a RPG, so yes. 🙂
I’m thinking that it may have been the hardware involved that was triggering my alarms, yes; both the cost and the size. The whole damn computing industry is waiting for us to invent 3-d projected holograms.
I’m not sure that cost is that much of an issue. Take the NY Times, for example. They used 187000 metric tons of newsprint last year for the Times. Looking on the web, I see costs ranging from $700-800 listed per metric ton of newsprint. So call it $750/ton, and we’re talking 140 million dollars per year. With a no-doubt inflated daily circulation of around a million, Sunday about 1.4 million, that means each person reading the Times daily costs them about $130/year in newsprint. So we don’t have to get costs down much at all before just giving someone a kindle with a 2-3 year subscrption commitment is breakeven. Given any sort of kickback from Amazon for book purchases and it’s probably breakeven today.