Can E-readers and Tablets Save the News?
Aan u verzonden via Google Reader
Can E-readers and Tablets Save the News?

Sales are robust for e-readers and there is no shortage of tablets yet to launch, including the new Apple iPad. But will strong sales translate into a boost for the media industry?
If media organizations do it right, the potential could be there for e-readers and tablets to become a viable revenue source. However, it may take a dramatic shift in the way publishers view digital content and their online business models.
Here’s a look at what media companies will likely need to do to make that happen.
The Potential of E-readers and Tablets

“Right now, the e-reader and tablet are the most promising new potential source of revenue for newspapers,” said Roger Fidler, program director for Digital Publishing at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri.
While a Freedom Foundation Fellow at Columbia University from 1991 to 1992, Fidler created a conceptual electronic newspaper prototype with about 12 hyperlinked pages. In 1994, he adapted that prototype for the Tablet Newspaper video he and others produced at the Knight-Ridder Information Design Lab.
Fidler also coordinates the Digital Publishing Alliance, which includes news companies such as The New York Times, USA Today, and The Washington Post, and is focused on issues such as standards for content and ads on e-readers and tablets.
He told me that when he wrote Mediamorphosis: Understanding New Media in 1997, he predicted e-readers would become commonplace in 2010. Not only have they arrived, but sales of e-readers are picking up. Sales of e-readers are ...