Does A Newspaper Really Need To Start Selling A Wireless Reader?

After the Hearst Corporation announced that the San Francisco Chronicle was near closing they follow with a release that they claim will be part of saving their newspaper and others publications. The company is planning to release a wireless ‘reader‘ similar to the Amazon Kindle. The Money story cited that Hearst has developed a wireless, wide screen reading device to display their publications.

Let me take a moment here: A Laptop, iPhone, Kindle, netbook, desktop even Google G-1, even a desktop, has the Hearst Corp. not already seen any of these devices? Why reinvent the wheel? This maybe the writing is on the wall why they are losing cash. A ‘reader’ doesn’t offer many avenues onto the social Internet and will only disconnect the publication from the everyday uses their readers want from a progressive publication.

I read a post about partnership between Yahoo and the Knoxville News Sentinel. A salesperson at the Sentinel, who had previously only sold print ads in 35 years, was able to sell $200,000 in online advertising a two weeks run. The advertising was sold across both the Sentinel’s website and on Yahoo internet properties.  The Knoxville News Sentinel is owned by the E.W. Scripps which was also forced to close the Rocky Mountain News last week.

The reboot of the workforce in the Sentinel/Yahoo venture is what the auto industry has been saying it needs to do to become profitable again. In the case of newspapers is simpler in that they only have to change the mindset of it’s sales force verses rebuilding assembly lines and retraining workers. The majority of newspapers and other news organizations have already brought the editorial staff into the Internet process. Before the Hearst Corporation moves much further into development, marketing and distribution of a new wireless ‘reader’ they may want to look at cheaper and practical alternatives ways to build revenue from the resources they already have available.

Here is just a random thought about the Kindle and other type ‘readers’ out there. What if they added the possibility to Twitter or post to social networks an excerpt from the book that a customer found interesting along with their impression. Wouldn’t this increase the sales of the eBooks, the real world book or even the ‘readers’? That just something that’s lodged in my thoughts tonight.

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