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The iPad Will Save Print Media

Finally, a device that makes people want to pay for content

By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff

Posted May 7, 2010 1:57 PM CDT

(Newser) – Michael Gerson is a self-proclaimed bibliophile who once loved “everything about used bookstores—the musty smell of decaying paper, the reading copies and remainders, the treasure hunt for a bright volume of an old favorite.” But he hasn’t visited one in years, thanks to his Amazon Kindle, and now that the iPad has arrived, he believes he’s seen the future of print media. Sure, he’s nostalgic, but it’s time to “embrace a new kind of magic.”

“The iPad is one of the most elegant, useful, astoundingly cool objects ever produced by the mind of man,” he writes in the Washington Post. The gadget could save the newspaper industry. No one wants to pay for content on the Internet; even the Kindle’s interface is too “flat and pale.” But Gerson—and, probably, many others—“would be willing to pay a monthly fee for access to a great newspaper on the vivid, touchable, multimedia iPad.”

In this Jan. 27, 2010 file photo, the iPad is shown after it was unveiled at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.
In this Jan. 27, 2010 file photo, the iPad is shown after it was unveiled at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.   (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, FILE)
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Da Vinci would drool. Newton would show an equal and opposite attraction. Edison would ignore the objections of his wife and buy one, preferably the model with 64 gigabytes. - Michael Gerson on the iPad

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 15 comments
Kevin
May 9, 2010 1:41 AM CDT
Print media could have saved it's self 15 years ago, but chose to put it's head in the sand. It's cheaper to produce a newspaper if you remove the paper & the delivery process. You offer your news paper for a cheaper rate then customers were paying for delivery. Offer news packages, like cable TV does. It's added to your Internet bill. They would have eliminated the pesky strikes, all the materials & chemicals that go into making a news paper. They would have saved fuel, not needing trucks anymore, less traffic, less green house gasses.
maxradi
May 8, 2010 2:23 AM CDT
It has the potential to save print media. It's too bad print media doesn't want to adapt to save itself.
Snowleopard
May 7, 2010 10:58 PM CDT
it's a laptop without a keyboard. big deal.

 
technology • Internet • publishing • Kindle • newspaper industry • books • newspapers • iPad

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