How is the Kindle DX going to save the newspaper industry when Amazon demands a whopping 70 percent of all revenue, plus the right to license that content (“the mayor said something important today at City Hall”) wherever it chooses? Such is the plight of the Dallas Morning News, and, presumably, other, smaller (compared to the New York Times, Washington Post, etc.) newspapers.
The Morning News’ publisher, James Moroney, spoke at a Capitol Hill hearing yesterday, and tried to play down the Kindle’s ability to save print. (Meanwhile, the Huffington Post’s Ariana Huffington, whose Web site doesn’t have the same fixed costs as a newspaper does, raved about the Kindle’s prospects at the same hearing.) While Kindle is neat and all, you can’t ask someone like Moroney to hand over 70 percent of his revenue. The future is… handing over all of your money to Amazon, for the privilege of being read by a few early adopters?
Long term, Amazon and the newspapers may work out some sort of beneficial deal, but, as they say, in the long term we’re all dead. So…
My completely fact-less take: who reads newspapers? Older people. Who doesn’t buy the latest, greatest technology at the drop of a hat? Older people. That’s a problem.
I certainly wouldn’t want to be a newspaper executive right now, that’s for sure.
Photo: Flickr