An E-reader is only as strong as the words that appear on its low-power screen. Without a content deal, it will be nearly impossible to compete with the Kindle 2 and its massive Amazon.com library.
Plastic Logic is making a gallant effort this week, announcing deals with a half-dozen media partners to provide content for its new E-reader, set to go to market in the beginning of 2010.
The biggest names in the deal are USA Today and the U.K.-based Financial Times, which have agreed to provide an electronic version of their daily newspaper for upload to the Plastic Logic reader. The FT is London’s version of the Wall Street Journal and seems likes a natural fit for a business reader because of the paper’s unique financial content.
The Gannett-owned USA Today is a different story - most of its news now comes from wire services, although business travelers have become accustomed to the paper. Hundreds of hotel chains across the country offer the USA Today as an amenity for guests, and it’s sports section is one of the best in the country. It’s going to be hard to convince readers to pay for a mediocre news product they can easily find for free, but bundling in a comp subscription with the device might be a strong upsale on the retail side.
Saving Papers from Themselves
Newspapers might have plenty to gain from the deal. Ad sales are way down, subscriptions are dropping off and news rooms across the country are slashing staff in an attempt to cuts costs. Could E-readers be the savior for the newspaper industry and provide a new subscription revenue and ad model?
Only time can tell, but Plastic Logic isn’t hedging its bets on traditional journalism. The company has struck a deal with Ingram Digital for its eBook library, as well as Zinio to provide digital magazine content. Zinio is a digital magazine publisher that offers hundreds of titles including Popular Mechanics, Esquire and U.S. World News and Report. LibreDigital has also agreed to provide Plastic Logic will additional news content.
Online publisher Fiction Wise will provide e-commerce solution to link all the publishers together into an e-store that will eventually be accessible via Plastic Logic’s 3G wireless network.
But is this enough to compete with the Kindle 2? The E-Reader’s A4 (letter-sized) screen seems better equipped for a magazine reading experience and publishers might find it easier to activate advertisements on the device’s touch screen.
The deal also encourages magazine companies to develop universal publishing standards and presents encouraging signs that Amazon.com won’t be able to develop a stranglehold on the E-content world. Now Plastic Logic just needs to get their product to shelves before all the marketshare is gobbled up.
By Dave Brooks
e-ink, e-reader, plastic logic, publishing
Seems like Plastic Logic is one year behind original schedule.
Indeed. Their product might not be out until 2010 now. *sigh*
Plastic Logic or any other company should pay atention to this single detail: open and universal content . The american market is not he only in earth. There are milions (or bilions) of people that would love to never print a page again, unless it is necessary. I downloaded a library of 5000 e-books that are virtually useless for the “americas’ sweet hart” Kindle. But those books are free and very cool. I have hundreds of scientific papers to print in order to use them in my work. The most used format in this field is PDF. however, the larger number of formats, the better it would be. And, of course, a friendly price is wellcome.
Excellent points Gilson. International is key.