Monday, February 16, 2009

The Paper Business

I woke up Sunday morning and saw a message on Twitter from my buddy, Greg Yeadon, about how he was settling down the with the Sunday Times (and some bacon). :)
I love reading the paper too, but my "paper" is becoming Google Reader. I subscribe to a lot of blogs that have very focused coverage in different areas. I feel like I get an All-Star paper every day. I still check SFGate (the SF Chronicle's online edition) because of the sports coverage, but rarely read the physical paper. I think this difference will be even more pronounced in a couple weeks when I get my Kindle 2.

Shortly after I fired up Google Reader and some coffee (no bacon until later), I saw this great post from my friend Charles Hudson, "Why Didn't the NY Times Sell Me My Kindle 2?" Charles lays out the playbook for the Times or Journal to bring about mass adoption of the Kindle, make itself some money, and most importantly, get themselves off the printing press.

It is completely baffling to me why these companies insist on staying on such an outdated standard (the printing press). Content players must support new delivery standards. How silly would Electronic Arts look if they only made Madden Football for old school Nintendo? What if Warner Bros only published their movies on VHS? Ridiculous right? This is what the news business is doing. It's time for the papers to stop fighting the new standards, and become advocates for the new ones. Advocacy is what makes you money. They better hurry, they'll only have my attention for a little while longer, before I completely switch to the All Stars like Charles Hudson in Google Reader.
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