Print Will Never be “Dead” but the Ole Rag Ain’t what She Use to Be

Oh no, Gentle Reader, the death of print will, thankfully, never be the case. There will always be a need for print media. That being said the newspaper industry is in for some hard times. E-readers are going to be the next BIG thing. If it is a Kindle, a Nook, a Sony, an iPad (which is a step towards the obsolescence of magazines too) or one of these puppies; the Kobo (http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/03/150-kobo-ereader-the-real-kindle-killer?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29). When I read about the Kobo I thought of filling my Christmas list with at least 3 (possibly 4) of ‘em. FINALLY an e-reader that is multiple platforms instead of just what Amazon is selling. The $150.00 price tag – HALF the price of a Kindle is nothing to sneeze at either.

Any way… getting back to print… This very evening while shopping at my local Shoprite I ran into two attractive middle-aged women who were trying to see subscriptions to the Atlantic City Press. “Would you like to have a subscription to The Atlantic City Press and receive a $10.00 coupon good for shopping here?”

“I’m sorry, I’m illiterate.” I lied.

“No you’re not.” She said. But it was too late; I had already started to put my junk onto the self-check out isle (I LOVE to avoid the contact of human cashiers).

They asked the next guy they saw. After hearing the question he said, “Why would I buy the paper when I have the internet?”

BAM! The game was up. That guy was right. If I wasn’t loading my groceries or have just lied to one of the quasi-attractive ladies selling the Press I would have asked the same question. Of course I would have followed it up by asking them when is the Atlantic City Press going to offer a viable digital delivery? Seriously. Just why would one purchase a newspaper these days – for the coupons?

NO. The gentleman in question answered the ladies inquiries by saying, “I can just print ‘em out.” He said goodbye to the ladies by wishing them a nice day but the truth was still hanging in the air. The newspaper business is dying. Do a search for the New York Times and it’s struggles to remain viable in an instantaneous world and you’ll begin to see the scope of this latest revolution. Oh well. Learn to use new technologies or let them put you out of business. That is the reality of the newspaper world. It was true for the record industry, the movie industry and it is true for ANY other media industry – Change or Die.

Seriously.

Right now, at this moment in the twenty-first century, the only thing holding back a BANGIN’ e-reader are the copyright holders.

Seriously.

I myself can’t wait for the day that YOU, Gentle Reader, will be able to download your favorite blogs to your e-reader. Kindle is experimenting with it now but it is only a matter of time before it is industry wide. Printing will be in the hands of the people – talk about your “freedom of the press!” The big boys (publishers) will have to adapt or die.

Seriously.

Here’s hopin’ that Chicken Scratch will be on your reading list.

The E-Reader Blues

Someday, not today but sometime in the near future, from one electronic device you will be able to have an entire library of books in the palm of your hand. It will be a wonderful thing. Instead of lugging around a wheelbarrow full of textbooks or best sellers you will have it all at your fingertips wherever you go and whatever you want to read. Perhaps you will be able to download different books from online libraries the world over or, if you are in college, download the semester’s curriculum in one fell swoop. But that day has not arrived. Perhaps we will be able to procure new E-books from a variety of sources including the big three, Amazon, Boarders and Barnes & Noble – who’s to say? Again, that day has not yet come.

Alas, Amazon has the Kindle 2.0, which has now dropped in price to $299.00 from $360.00, is nice enough but the only place that you can get your E-books from is, shockingly, Amazon. Even with the price drop three hundred bucks is, at least for yours truly, a decent chunk of change; and then there’re all those books to buy at $10.00 a pop – discounted from an honest to goodness book in your hands but ten bucks, nonetheless (see: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/04/kindle-readers/). And that’s just the Kindle. There’s a slue of these puppies hitting the marketplace and there are things to consider if you feel so inclined such at the jetBook (http://www.geardiary.com/2009/03/09/the-ectaco-jetbook-universal-portable-reading-device-review/) and the Cool-er (http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/05/cool-er-e-book-reader-turns-up-the-heat/). You are going to need to know if you can get the books/data that you want to read, you will want to know what formats are supported (very important) and, of course, you are going to want to know how much you are spending. I don’t know what to tell you, Gentle Reader, other than steering you to this nice little article on choosing an E-book Reader that may help clear things up a bit: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/05/buying-guide-e-book-reader/. If that does not assuage your thirst for knowledge check out what my favorite second brain has to say on the subject: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-book_reader.

Man, I love me some Wikipedia.

Someday the book publishers and electronic media makers will come to some consensus. When that day arrives I will see about making the jump. Until then I will wait and dream of the titles that I would put onto such a device; several versions of the Bible, the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, the Hobbit, the entire Harry Potter and Gunslinger series would be worth rereading. I am also quite fond of Neil Gaiman, Jules Verne, Ian Fleming, Christopher Moore, Ray Bradbury, Edgar Allen Poe, Stephen King, Kurt Vonnegut, Mark Twain, Anne Rice, Shakespeare, Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs… the list really is endless and the idea of having THAT library with me waiting to be read on one device is wildly appealing. I’m probably not alone with this little desire for the future.

So on that one day in the not too distant future, just what will be on your E-book Reader?

Is Print Dead Yet?

Well, no… not yet anyway. A part of me would miss the feel of a book. I mean really, what reader worth his or her salt doesn’t love that musty smell of old books or being spellbound; getting lost inside the pages of a good story? There is magic there – real magic. There are those who believe that the same enchantment can be had without the use of paper.

They might be onto something. For almost the last 600 years people have turned to the book as the preferred method of idea delivery. Well, the times they are a changin’. E Readers have been around for the last half dozen years or so but they have not really been the house of fire they have promised to be. Sloppy interfaces, copyright infringement, publishing companies, glossy screens have all made the transition from page to screen bumpy. Enter the Kindle from Amazon (amazon.com; that is) > http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FI73MA/ref=amb_link_6003602_2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1RYY06HGSKSRT1H05PCR&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=337021901&pf_rd_i=507846.

Pretty cool, no? Having a library at your fingers wherever you go, wireless – always on technology, access to newspapers, periodicals and blogs, not to mention the 100,000 plus novels that are available for download. It’s possible to email yourself Word documents and pictures and there is free wireless access to my favorite second brain, Wikipedia. This little $400.00 number looks to be the next step in making this a paperless world – at least if Jeff Bezos has his way.

Who is Jeff Bezos? Good question. He’s the entrepreneur who envisioned the concept of Amazon; the 900 lbs. gorilla when it comes to online warehouse shopping. Amazon knows one or two things about books and how they are disseminated to the reading public. He’s carved a niche out into a billion dollar industry and now he’s got revolution on his mind. Here’s the Full Monty on the subject; it’s a really good article > http://www.newsweek.com/id/70983/page/1.

There’s always going to be a need for paper but in the future apart from legal documents, shopping bags, toileting purposes and the occasional book collector who enjoys that old musty smell of bound books – it’s days just may be numbered.

Would Franklin and Gutenberg be rolling in their graves? I doubt it – I think they’d both be bloggers and eager to play with whatever new crease technology would allow them to express themselves; their ideas and ideals through.

…Yeah, those two would have Kindles, but then again, so would I if I could afford it.