#comments

Huh, I didn’t see this coming. Hearst has announced plans to launch it’s own e-reader with a larger screen than is found on the Kindle to cater to the needs of newspapers and magazines who are used to big ol’ pages. They plan to open up the platform to make it as enticing to publishers as possible, in particular not prescribing payment models. They’ll also let the device be branded. Honestly, this whole thing makes just about 0 sense to me – unless it is going to be so freaking cheap/disposable that publishers will be able to simply send it to their print subscribers and provide them a digital version of the product for the same costs as printing and mailing them print media. Which, seems, well, like that’s probably not going to happen.

First and most obviously, the chance they have at success in creating a popular consumer electronics device is just about 0%. It just isn’t easy even for people who are used to doing so – a publisher with no electronics experience doesn’t seem likely. Who knows, though, stranger things have happened – sometimes it takes a really fresh perspective to hit it out of the park. No, what really gives me pause was that at no point in discussing this product do they mention consumer needs. They don’t say what problems that consumers have with existing options will be addressed, instead they talk only about needs of publishers and payment methods. Clearly, the consumer isn’t the focus and that pretty much means non-success.

Second, it’s e-readers are all about the content. It seems that an e-reader who’s primary content is periodicals won’t be compelling enough. Even in the event that they get some significant number of publishers to sign up, I’m not clear that people really want something just to read periodicals on. To some degree given that these are short form writing (as opposed to book length reading) – reading them on smart phones and computers and what not is pretty reasonable to do.

Third and most rumorly, Amazon’s reputed to be coming out with a “student edition” kindle that will have a larger screen. Which is, seemingly, a good portion of why Hearst is planning on making theirs…

It’s good to see that publishers are looking ahead of the curve and embracing technology like this. But I think in this case it doesn’t seem like a good idea to strike out on their own. Pulling together as a group to try and wrangle with Amazon to deal with more of their needs would seem like a better use of their time – especially now when the platform is just emerging and Amazon needs all the content they can get their hands on.

My guess is that this product won’t see the light of day. On the other hand, I would love to be pleasantly surprised. Look at the success Hulu had despite my (and the rest of the nerd world’s) incredible skepticism. I would love to see some great e-readers hit the scene – competition is good. If they can make a foldable one with a good interface, damn that would be sweet. It’s just from the admittedly limited talk on the product it doesn’t seem like it is in the cards. I hope I am wrong! What do you think? Are you looking forward to an Esquire branded e-reader to replace your zines?