At MarketWatch.com, a reader identified as Jackafuss left the following comment, which shows tremendous insight and offers some optimism for newspapers:
Newspapers will not only survive but they will see huge profits through rebounding advertising rates and new earnings from "delivery fees" just about the time production costs collapse.
Electronic delivery through reading tablets is about to shift into high gear. Electronic versions are going to rapidly replace newspapers, books, newsletters and magazines and even the U.S. Mail.
Currently, Kindle enjoys its position as the only game in town. (Sony, Barnes and Noble and others are nipping at Kindle's heels from a distance.) In addition to 250,000 books, Kindle offers 34 electronic newspapers and hundreds of e-letters and blogs.
Soon, local papers will offer newspaper and "mail" delivery through a new generation of electronic reading tablets. By offering large e-readers, about the size of a sheet of notebook paper, "rent free," newspapers will find it easy to contract with other publishers for low-cost delivery services (church newsletters, for example).
The benefits to the public will be enormous: more news at a lower total price, plus huge environmental benefits.
Competition for getting e-readers into the hands of the public is heating up. Sprint, AT&T and Verizon are among the "big players," as are Apple and Google. Apple's deal with Amazon means that millions of subscribers to electronic delivery services now have the option to download electronic books for half the cost of paper copies.
Kindle, Apple, Sprint and the others are selling the pipeline; however, local newspapers control local content. By offering e-readers "rent free" just when home delivery is stopped, newspapers have a natural foothold in this new "private mail service."
Smart newspaper publishers will limit access to local news without a paid subscription via a "newspaper owned" reader.
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