Most interesting to us, however, is what the company is doing with a number of universities and newspaper companies to make its device more widely available. Amazon has signed on The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe to offer the Kindle DX at a reduced price in exchange for long-term subscription commitments, while 5 universities are launching pilot programs where the Kindle will be offered to students as a replacement for textbooks.
Specifically, the newspapers are using the Kindle to expand their distribution to areas where they don’t currently offer home delivery of the dead tree paper. According to Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., Chairman of The New York Times Company, "By offering a subscription through the Kindle DX to readers who live outside of our delivery areas, we will extend our reach to our loyal readers who will be able to more readily enjoy their favorite newspapers.”
While expanding distribution beyond its current markets is no doubt a good thing, the demand that the newspaper companies see will prove an important barometer for whether a similar program can begin to replace their traditional business model of expensive printing and home delivery. My feeling is that it might work – the Kindle isn’t just for reading the newspaper, it’s for reading essentially any book you want. An option to get it subsidized by the media companies will be attractive to some consumers, and allow globally known brands like The New York Times to expand their subscriber base.
Meanwhile, the plan to digitize textbooks is also interesting. In addition to universities – which include Princeton, UVA, Case Western, Arizona State, and Reed College – there appears to be buy-in from the textbook manufacturers to offer books in the Kindle store. Although I’m a few years removed from college, I can say that digitizing textbooks is a game changer. Buying dozens of new textbooks each semester was an enormous gripe of mine – not just because of the cost, but because of how wasteful it is. The Kindle has the potential to change this.