Rupert Murdoch: E-readers will replace the newspaper

09/16/2009

 
For some time now it's been evident that the electronic reader offers a significant alternative --- potentially --- to the newspaper. The world's largest press baron now says it will be so.

Rupert Murdoch says it may take 20 years, but the days of printing plants, pressmen and the distribution arm of papers will vanish. The e-reader will supplant the need for that laborious production.

Murdoch's company hasn't been a major player inside the e-reader business to date, but his remarks in Financial Times indicate he's got his eyes on it.
 

Plastic Logic e-reader coming soon

08/03/2009

 
The Times of London has a profile of the Plastic Logic electronic reader due later this year, an entry into the digital race to provide alternatives to print editions for books, magazines, newspapers and other periodicals.

Few new details are in the piece. The roll-up device will cost about the same as Amazon's Kindle, it won't be in colour for a year or two after its U.S. release early in 2010 (a key for advertisers and for all imagery), and there is no sense of pricing of the content (Kindle, after all, hasn't ventured outside the U.S. yet).

But the opportunities abound for print media to find a new revenue stream, or for start-ups to have one from their inception, once e-readers arrive and start competing.
 

Rupert Murdoch on newspapers

05/28/2009

 

Rupert Murdoch, arguably the world's unrivaled press baron, asserts newspapers will make money in the future through advertising and subscriptions. They'll perhaps not be printed on paper, but supplied through a mobile device or panel, updated often.

But in his interview with Fox Business (video here, unfortunately not embeddable), he muses that free content won't exist. It'll be paid for in some respect.


 
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