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Should Newspapers Create Consortium for E-Readers?
May 24, 2009 | 5:23 pm
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By Paul Biba
This is an older post, May 6, that bkobb put me onto. It contains some very interesting information about Plastic Logic and others. The post is Glaser’s report of his attendance at “a half-day symposium here at the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri’s journalism school, this time a meeting of the “Digital Publishing Alliance,” a group of newspapers and tech folks who are looking at how newspaper content might work on various e-readers like the Amazon Kindle.”
Here’s a little excerpt that answers a question that has been asked a lot. The answer comes from Guy Tasaka, LibreDigital’s director of business development, on how much does it cost to deliver a newspaper wirelessly:
“Economics of delivering a newspaper on Kindle:
> Avg. file size = 1.2MB
> Bandwidth cost = .12 cents MB
> Selling price = $13.99 month
> Monthly bandwidth cost = $4.32
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Comments:
It’s a very interesting article. I think the idea of a newspaper consortium has merit. I am concerned about Plastic Logic’s statement that they want newspapers redesigned for their device. If they want a uniform presentation, it will take away part of the character of the newspaper, something I would not like to see. If they simply mean a rethinking of how a nespaer is laid out so that it will work better on an e-device, that might be OK.
Personally, if the consortium idea does grab hold and a device like the Plastic Logic becomes available for newspaper subscriptions, I would gladly trade in my print subscription for the e-subscription, even at close to the current print price. What would be a good idea would be for newspapers and magazines to join in this consortium and then offer multiple-product subscriptions. For example, get the NY Times, Economist, and The New York Review of Books for $60/month. Sign up for a 2-year commitment and get the Plastic Logic Reader for $50. I’m not sure how current magazine subscribers who are paid up for the next few years would work into the equation, but it can certainly be done.
Where do I sign up?
If the consortium simply concentrated on a standardized HTML format and layout for their content, leaving device makers to optimize their devices to satisfy those standards, that would allow dedicated and non-dedicated devices to access their content… which is more than the market they’re going to get if they concentrate on dedicated devices alone.
I still don’t understand how anyone in the biz can not see this.
Something here doesn’t add up (or multiply correctly).
Average file size = 1.2MB
Month’s worth (30) = 36MB
Bandwidth = .12 cents / MB (???)
Cost = $0.0432
If bandwidth is $0.12 (and not .12 cents)
then, yes, the monthly cost would be $4.32
for a 30 day month.
So, is the $4.32 correct, or is the .12 cents correct?
– Scott