The saviour of newspapers has arrived

mashable.com

2 points·jrwoodruff··3 comments

According to Mashable, the new Kindle just might save newspapers.

It - might - save the New York Times, but I don't think this is a game changer for smaller-market papers (i.e. most of them).

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That's really cool, but the problem for newspapers is bigger than the medium. I can already pull up the New York Times on my iPhone. Now I can do it on Kindle. Cool, but not big news.

Newspapers are still slow to respond. The news is already out on the Internet before its on the front page of the New York Times.

This definitely helps newspapers, but it's only part of the solution. Another part may perhaps be design? (http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1660-jacek-utko-can-desig...)

That's an interesting talk but high design takes time - that seems to be at odds with the workflow of newspapers.

Nice video. It's funny you posted that because I am actually a newspaper designer. And he's right, to some extent. Obviously, I believe that design can play a major role in newspapers, and really great design can be done. But it takes an amazing amount of coordination and manpower to pull of those designs. Several papers in the U.S. have been reknowned for this well-thought-out very highly designed content, including the Hartford Courant and the Virgina Pilot (and both have been named best-designed by SND at some point I believe), but it hasn't helped them as far as I'm aware.

There is a market for newspapers. I believe there probably always will be. But the market for 7-day-a-week local papers is dying fast. My headline was meant to be a bit snarky. My point really is: It's the INTERNET. No piece of hardware is going to change that.

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