This has gotten major blog buzz over the weekend*: Hearst has announced that it will release an 8 1/2 by 11 inch e-book reader later this year. Of course, you’ll be able to read Hearst papers and magazines on this device, and presumably subscribe to receive the papers and magazines on the device, too. Gawker is suitably cynical on the matter:
It’s like a terminal cancer patient putting faith in some herbalist’s shark-bone treatment.
Listen: I think a large, skinny newspaper and magazine reader is a great idea. But I think that if this thing is Hearst-specific, it is doomed to failure. Nobody in their right mind thinks “I’d really like to read a Hearst newspaper or magazine right now.” If you can only get Hearst magazines on this thing, it’d be maybe the least useful device ever. But if I can subscribe to every magazine I’d want to subscribe to, and if new and major-label-unaffiliated magazines could get on the device, that could change the game.
* The other thing that burned up the internet this weekend is Scans_Daily being shut down by Live Journal, possibly because Peter David complained about it. My gut reaction: I liked going to Scans_Daily occasionally and I will miss it (or Daily Scans’ Journal will immediately replace it. One thing or another.) Peter David hasn’t written anything good in over a decade, but it’s well within his rights to complain about someone posting his stuff online where anyone can read it for free. MightyGodKing, as always, has good perspective on the whole thing.
Hearst will probably license the technology or access to the device and thus not at all be exclusive to Heart publications. Licensing is where the real money is at.
This sounds a lot like the Plastic Logic e-reader I’ve been waiting for, which will be much more versatile than you suggest. The Plastic Logic e-reader is due next year.
On the other hand, they (Hearst) might just be really, really stupid…
If it turns out to be a Kindle-type book-reader thing as well (and doesn’t cost huge $$) I’d be totally into it.
Um, if you had read the story:
The device and underlying technology, *which other publishers will be allowed to adapt*, is likely to debut this year.
Gawker is spot on.
Seriously, have you actually TRIED to read the NYT on it?
I’m posting this from the bus on my 3″ x 4″ full color smartphone right now. I have another tab open with the NYT. It takes me 10 seconds to google a news article from 2002. I have bad eyes and I’ve never had a complaint. A lot of smartphones are free with contact now. If you upgrade your phone in a year, you’ll have one too.
Then I’ll wait for the phone version.
Peter David’s Supergirl was awesome.
Wouldn’t mind an up-to-date portable version of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
Amelia: Upgrade your phone!
http://i44.tinypic.com/j7zwpw.jpg
I very, very rarely hit up Scans Daily, but my husband was a big fan. I think that Peter David is doing something very stupid here for one simple reason: Before my husband started reading Scans Daily, he never bought comic books or graphic novels. Now he buys them frequently because he’s seen them on Scans Daily and knows which ones are good. Sure, the website posted pages of comic books, but in such a way that it made people want to read more of good authors and good series. Somehow I doubt that closing such a vector is going to make all the former readers suddenly go out and buy huge numbers of comics indiscriminately.
Electra @ 11: That’s what most of the S_D people are saying, but it’s hard to monetize that. I’ve learned about books on S_D too. Anecdotally, it’s compelling stuff, but no publisher is going to let their author throw a hissy and not do something like shut down a technically illegal website.
@12: Yeah, I understand, but it’s still a really dumb move on the part of an industry that has a hard time getting new people interested and keeping them there. On the other hand, I suppose I should be pleased, because now he’s not going to be buying so many comic books and we save money.
Will this be better than my tablet or iphone, because the Kindle sure as fuck isn’t. I want color, I want a touch screen, and I want it to be about a quarter inch think and have a creen at least 10-12 inches across.
What I really want is digital paper.
PAD’s new run of X-Factor was pretty good at the beginning and the Madrox limited series was great. His She Hulk was an abomination.
His internet presence suggest that he’s a bit of douchebag and generally out for conflict and making trouble.
How is it possible Marvel had never heard of S_D?
Think Cell Phone model: give the reader away for free (or nearly so) and charge for subscriptions.
@16 – that’s why phone service costs so damn much in this country, that’s why not.
@10: Well found. But a phone would be an even tinier viewer for a newspaper so munificent it’s hard to read one weekday’s paper in a week, even if you’re an unemployed grad student skipping entire semesters. Damn, I miss rattling that paper around. Wed. was the science section. Even their auto section was worth reading. Their editorials were predictably WSJ though (pre-Murdoch, post-Hitler).