Groundswell around newspaper e-readers growing
I blogged last week asking whether there was a future for e-papers/e-readers and into my in-box pops an email from the Wall Street Journal announcing new e-reader plans.
The Wall Street Journal Europe has launched an e-Paper service apparently: “the new and fast way of getting The Wall Street Journal Europe”.
The launch follows comments made by News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch (also last week) who said the content giant was investing in developing an e-reader, like Amazon’s Kindle or the Sony Reader.
Other newspapers are also looking to go down the e-reader route. Earlier this year e-reader firm Plastic Logic signed agreements with the Financial Times and USA Today to sell and distribute a wealth of content for its forthcoming Plastic Logic Reader.
It appears that newspaper publishers might be leaning towards some kind of e-reader payment system. They appear to be betting that people might make a micro payment for a really good piece of content on a Kindle or other e-reader. Amazon for instance already charges for some news feeds available for free on the web for the Kindle.
Last week, it was the the Gannett owned Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News, owned by MediaNews Group, which were pushing their electronic copies after ditching home delivery (on the biggest news day of the year).
The Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News papers are also working with Plastic Logic.
