In a column called God Said The New York Times Is Dead, I wrote that the venerable newspaper had outlived its usefulness, and that the newspaper industry had become “a machine that converts forests into spam and pollution.” The newspaper medium and business model are obsolete, I wrote, but newspaper content — and the people […]
In a column called God Said The New York Times Is Dead, I wrote that the venerable newspaper had outlived its usefulness, and that the newspaper industry had become “a machine that converts forests into spam and pollution.”
The newspaper medium and business model are obsolete, I wrote, but newspaper content — and the people who create it — are needed now more than ever. “What’s an educated reader to do?,” I asked, and answered my own question: “Cancel your newspaper subscriptions” but support newspapers by “visiting them regularly, subscribing if they have something to subscribe to, and patronizing their advertisers.”
That was October 31. Just two and a half weeks later, on November 19, Amazon announced its Kindle e-Book reader
Amazon Kindle lets you buy electronic books from Amazon, and read them on the device. You can also subscribe to newspapers, magazines and blogs, browse the Internet and do other things via its free, unlimited broadband wireless connection.
The purpose of this column is to update my previous advice with this: If you want to save newspapers, cancel your print subscription, buy a Kindle and subscribe to one of the Kindle-delivered newspapers. The Kindle is the best thing that ever happened to the newspaper business.
Best of all, reading your newspaper on Kindle requires zero sacrifice.
| Mike Elgan Columns | |
| Why Everyone Should Use Google Calendar
In Search of the Perfect Start Page
|
I’ve been using a Kindle now for a few days, and reading my subscription to The New York Times (Amazon currently offersthe Times, plus 10 other newspapers). Reading a Kindle-based newspaper is superior — far superior, actually — to reading a paper newspaper.
So even if you don’t care about saving the newspaper industry — even if you hate the environment — buy a Kindle anyway for purely selfish reasons. Here’s why the Kindle is a better newspaper:
Better browsing Kindle newspaper articles are presented in four ways: “Articles List,” “Sections List,” “Front Page” and one article after the other. That last option is golden. The default option when you’re looking at the first page of a newspaper article is “Next Article.” So if you don’t want to read it, just press the scroll wheel with your thumb. To read the article, press one of the “Next Page” bars on either side of the device. When you get to the last page of an article, the default selection, again, is “Next Article.” So both browsing and reading is amazingly easy. The next article is always a single thumb-press away.
Better readabilityPeople prefer paper to LCD screens for reading. However, the Kindle screen is easier to read than paper. Unlike a computer display, which throws light at your eyeballs, the Kindle display is “passive” like paper — the light is reflected from room light. Letters appear printed on the surface. It looks like a high-def Etch-a-Sketch. The brighter the light, the better it looks. Plus, type size is adjustable. The combination of amazing screen technology and resizable text makes Kindle better to read. You can read faster on Kindle than you can on paper.
Better comprehension Kindle has a built-in dictionary: The New Oxford American Dictionary. Just click on a line, and Kindle will show you definitions of each major word in that line. If you don’t like that dictionary, you can buy another one in the Kindle store and replace it as the default. If you want to go further, look it up on the Wikipedia — or Google or any other Web site. A Kindle-based service called Kindle NowNow will set actual humans in motion to answer your questions — and it’s free. Try doing that in a taxi with your print newspaper.
Better deliveryKindle delivers your paper earlier, more reliably and — best of all — to you, not your house. So if you’re not at home, you get your paper just the same.
Better “recycling”The recycling of newspapers is an expensive, environmentally unfriendly process. No paper to recycle is better than recycling. Your Kindle newspaper just goes away by itself after seven days.
Better pricingKindle newspapers are cheaper for you and more profitable for the newspaper company. Everybody wins.
| Mike Elgan Columns | |
| Why Everyone Should Use Google Calendar
In Search of the Perfect Start Page
|
Better discoverability You can search the whole newspaper — or all back issues of your newspapers — for keywords. I searched for “Kindle” and got 13 hits in today’s paper. It turns out the Timeshas an article today called, “‘Real Books Are Great, Except In Your Luggage,” about e-book readers.
Better experiencePaper newspapers can be annoying. I hate getting ink on my fingers. The ads can be overwhelming. And I don’t like “jumps,” where the story is continued on another page buried deep inside another section. Print newspapers are too big to read in some places, such as in an economy class airline seat. The Kindle frees you from all these annoyances.
For my money ($400), the Kindle is worth the price of admission just for The New York Timesalone. This is the vision of newspapers that futurists have been dreaming about for a century. What they didn’t imagine, is that the newspaper would also give you access to thousands of books, the Internet and your own personal documents as well.
So if you love newspapers like I do, buy a Kindle. It’s better for the newspapers, better for the environment, and way better for you.
Huawei’s AI Update: Things Are Moving Faster Than We Think
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
December 04, 2020
Keeping Machine Learning Algorithms Honest in the ‘Ethics-First’ Era
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
November 18, 2020
Key Trends in Chatbots and RPA
FEATURE | By Guest Author,
November 10, 2020
FEATURE | By Samuel Greengard,
November 05, 2020
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
November 02, 2020
How Intel’s Work With Autonomous Cars Could Redefine General Purpose AI
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
October 29, 2020
Dell Technologies World: Weaving Together Human And Machine Interaction For AI And Robotics
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
October 23, 2020
The Super Moderator, or How IBM Project Debater Could Save Social Media
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
October 16, 2020
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
October 07, 2020
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Guest Author,
October 05, 2020
CIOs Discuss the Promise of AI and Data Science
FEATURE | By Guest Author,
September 25, 2020
Microsoft Is Building An AI Product That Could Predict The Future
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 25, 2020
Top 10 Machine Learning Companies 2020
FEATURE | By Cynthia Harvey,
September 22, 2020
NVIDIA and ARM: Massively Changing The AI Landscape
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
September 18, 2020
Continuous Intelligence: Expert Discussion [Video and Podcast]
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By James Maguire,
September 14, 2020
Artificial Intelligence: Governance and Ethics [Video]
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By James Maguire,
September 13, 2020
IBM Watson At The US Open: Showcasing The Power Of A Mature Enterprise-Class AI
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 11, 2020
Artificial Intelligence: Perception vs. Reality
FEATURE | By James Maguire,
September 09, 2020
Anticipating The Coming Wave Of AI Enhanced PCs
FEATURE | By Rob Enderle,
September 05, 2020
The Critical Nature Of IBM’s NLP (Natural Language Processing) Effort
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE | By Rob Enderle,
August 14, 2020
Mike Elgan is an American journalist, blogger, columnist, and podcaster. He is a columnist for publications including Computerworld, Cult of Android, Cult of Mac, Forbes, Datamation, eWeek, and Baseline.
Datamation is the leading industry resource for B2B data professionals and technology buyers. Datamation's focus is on providing insight into the latest trends and innovation in AI, data security, big data, and more, along with in-depth product recommendations and comparisons. More than 1.7M users gain insight and guidance from Datamation every year.
Property of TechnologyAdvice. © 2025 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved
Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.
