Bigger E-Readers Ride In to Save Newspapers

By Harry Kimball,  Newser Staff
Posted May 4, 2009 12:24 PM CDT
Bigger E-Readers Ride In to Save Newspapers
The new Kindle 2 electronic reader.   (AP Photo)

Amazon is set to introduce a tabloid-sized version of the Kindle tailored to display newspapers—just one of many e-readers in the pipe that just might toss a life-preserver to print journalism, the New York Times reports. In fact, Engadget expects the new Kindle to debut Wednesday at a press conference with the Times’ publisher. The industry is abuzz with expectations that the new reader could do for news what the iPod did for music.

Hearst, News Corp., and startup Plastic Logic are also developing readers that could reinvigorate newspapers’ profits with the digital subscriptions they declined to cash in on with the advent of the Internet. “We are looking at this with a great deal of interest,” one newspaper exec said. But most e-readers are based on E-Ink tech, which saves energy with a slower, black-and-white display, dismaying other possible clients: magazines. (More Kindle stories.)

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