Michael Braun's Blog

No matter was Jeff Bezos might think, there is little benefit from getting the news in a newspaper. I accept the nostalgia factor; it’s very important for some people to continue to get a daily paper. And overall, I like to read things on paper, not on my computer (and certainly not on a cheap-looking plastic device priced for a millionaire). So with the newspaper industry struggling, they’ve attempted to embrace ridiculous solutions to solve their problems. Their latest attempt is working with Amazon’s Kindle DX – a big, uber-expensive screen in a white plastic case. On it, you can read newspaper (and suffer through 3 second page turning delays). Here’s what the newspapers don’t seem to get.

Print sources are best for static information. When I pick up the New Yorker, I expect in depth, well-written stories about events that I already knew about (if based on current events) or about areas that I wouldn’t read about on news sites. For this privilege, I am more than willing to pay $50 a year (or more!). Lauren and I, between us, have about 6 magazine subscriptions. We really like magazines. Same for books – our shelves are overflowing. I’ve got 5 boxes of books stored in a closet because we don’t have the shelf space. I love being able to reread books that I own, and I visit the library frequently.

But the news is supposed to be “new”. So when newspaper websites regularly update their news, why would I want to subscribe to a newspaper? Even if for local news, I can get that on local news websites like Madison.com. Instead, I’d have a lot of paper that I’d have to recycle, with a lot of information that is already out of date by the time I read it. It is beyond me why Amazon and the newspaper industry thinks that the new Kindle will help with this. People aren’t ending their subscriptions because they don’t like ink on their fingers.

We still need reporting from newspapers, and they still need a way to make themselves profitable. But as media becomes more and more conglomerated, should we feel so bad that they have to cut costs? Remember the days where paper ownership was a license to print money? Those days are over. It is best now to focus on quality reporting, web features, web advertising, and the printing as necessary to reach an ever-shrinking base. This is NOT the time to bank your future on the Kindle.