There tends to be a ton of hyperbole surrounding e-readers. They’re either devices that save newspaper companies from sure ruin or visions of shangrila that will hasten the demise of the media as we know it.
Here’s what I think is closer to the truth: E-readers will be a part of a multiplatform strategy that will keep newspapers healthy for years to come.
Media companies will shortly have four platforms for information delivery — print newspapers, online, mobile, and e-readers — and they will each deliver information in different ways. (Let me say, the SHOULD deliver information in different ways because users want different things from each product.) As such, newspapers have to find ways to take advantage of the delivery systems available to them and squeeze as much revenue as possible out of those systems
E-readers alone won’t save newspapers, which is why all of the blogs, opinion pieces and stories that focus on that one aspect miss the point entirely. Instead of focusing on one delivery information delivery system, we should all focus on a strategy to best take advantage of all of the weapons in the arsenal. How media companies should use those weapons will be the topic of my blogs next week.
The views expressed on this blog are mine alone. You can also read me at www.newsandtech.com and www.aimgroup.com
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