It’s now becoming quite clear that my vague
and obvious predictions posted on this site are being stolen by technology
corporations. First, there was my rumblings over the potential to meld solar panels
and the unused surface area of cell phones. Days later word came out that both Samsung and LG were doing just that. And now, mere days after I
suggested that the latest in e-reader technology might herald in an era of
subscription based news, lo and behold mega-media conglomerate Hearst announces
they have developed an e-reader for its numerous newspaper and magazine lines
(including—brace yourself—Cosmopolitan!)
Hearst owns some 16 daily and 49 weekly
newspapers and is said to have strong ties with a variety of magazines. The
announcement comes on the heels of Amazon’s release of its second generation e-book reader Kindle 2. Also joining the digital news reader foray is Plastic Logic with
their large-display e-reader [pictured above]. In
fact, Plastic Logic has already been hard at work, signing companies and
building a rather substantial library of over 1,000 digital magazine titles. It
is said be open-source platform. Trials and pilots are set to begin in the latter half of
2009 with a commercial release in 2010. No word yet on pricing.
But back to Hearst, a company that is very
much concerned with pricing as they consider how to best introduce a
subscription-based approach to delivering online content.
“Exactly how much paid content to hold back
from our free sites will be a judgment call made daily by our management, whose
mission should be to run the best free Web sites in our markets without
compromising our ability to get a fair price from consumers for the expensive,
unique reporting and writing that we produce each day,” said president of
Hearst newspapers Steven Swartz.
Now here’s where things get coincidentally
freaky. It’s rumoured that the Hearst’s e-reader will be physically flexible,
just like the e-reader was in the article I first mentioned such a grand,
subscription based reader. Oh, and all that saving money, economical viability
stuff, here’s what CNET News had to say about that in regards to Hearst’s
reader:
“Once implemented, this would change the
way newspapers and magazines are published. Instead of getting a print copy,
you can just download the newest issues on the e-reader, wirelessly. No
printing or paper is involved. Besides the environmental factor, this would cut
down about 50 percent of the cost to circulate a periodical.”
Now I know what you’re thinking: Hasn’t
Hearst likely been developing this for years and you just wrote that article
last week? Well that’s the beauty of time-traveling patent stealing; the
creator is made to look like the plagiariser! Dastardly and paradoxical.
CNET is speculating a launch of the
unnamed reader in the next 12 to 18 months. No word on cost, though the word ‘affordable’ is being tossed around in relation to the reader.
