Electronic newspaper reader has look of the real thing (IHT)

Electronic newspaper reader has look of the real thing
By Eric A. Taub
Monday, September 8, 2008
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts: The electronic newspaper, a large portable screen that is constantly updated with the latest news, has been a prop in science fiction for ages. It also figures in the dreams of newspaper publishers struggling with rising production and delivery costs, lower circulation and decreased ad revenue from their printed product.
While the dream device remains on the drawing board, Plastic Logic now has a version of an electronic newspaper reader: a lightweight plastic screen that mimics the look - but not the feel - of a printed newspaper.
The device uses the same technology as the Sony Reader and Amazon.com's Kindle, a highly legible black-and-white display developed by E Ink. While both of those devices are intended primarily as book readers, Plastic Logic's device, still unnamed in advance of its formal unveiling Monday at an emerging-technology trade show in San Diego, has a screen more than twice as large. The size of a piece of copier paper, it can be continually updated via a wireless link, and it can store and display hundreds of pages of newspapers, books and documents.
Richard Archuleta, chief executive of Plastic Logic, said the display was big enough to provide a layout like a newspaper's. "Even though we have positioned this for business documents, newspapers is what everyone asks for," Archuleta said.
The reader is to go on sale in the first half of next year. Plastic Logic is not saying which news organization will display articles on it until the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, when it will also disclose the price.
Kenneth Bronfin, president of Hearst Interactive Media, said, "We are hopeful that we will be able to distribute our newspaper content on a new generation of larger devices sometime next year." While he would not say what device the company's papers would use, he said: "We have a very strong interest in e-newspapers. We're very anxious to get involved."
Hearst, the parent of Hearst Interactive Media, owns 16 daily newspapers in the United States, including The Houston Chronicle, The San Antonio Express and The San Francisco Chronicle, and was an early investor in E Ink. The company already distributes electronic versions of some newspapers on the Amazon Kindle.
Newspaper companies have watched the technology closely for years. The ideal format, a flexible display that could be rolled or folded like a newspaper, is still years off, says E Ink. But it foresees color displays with moving images and interactive clickable advertising coming in only a few more years, according to Sriram Peruvemba, vice president for marketing for E Ink.
E Ink expects that within the next few years it will be able to create technology that allows users to write on the screen and view videos. At a recent demonstration at E Ink's headquarters here, the company showed prototypes of flexible displays that can create rudimentary colors and animated images. "By 2010, we will have a production version of a display that offers newspaperlike color," Peruvemba said.
If e-newspapers take off, the savings could be hefty. At The San Francisco Chronicle, for example, print and delivery amount to 65 percent of the paper's fixed expenses, Bronfin said.
With electronic readers, publishers would also learn more about its readers. With paper copy subscriptions, newspapers know what address has received a copy and not much else. About those customers picking up a copy on the newsstand, they know nothing beyond what they can deduce in surveys.
As an electronic device, newspapers can determine who is reading their paper, and even which articles are being read. Advertisers would be able to understand their audience and direct advertising to its likeliest customers.
While this raises privacy concerns, "these are future possibilities which we will explore," said Hans Brons, chief executive of iRex Technologies in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.
IRex markets the iLiad, an electronic reader that measures 8.5 by 6.1 inches, or 21.5 by 15.5 centimeters, and can be used to receive electronic versions of the newspapers Les Echos in France and NRC Handelsblad in the Netherlands.
The iLiad, Kindle and Reader prove the technology works. The big question for newspaper companies is how much people will pay for a device and the newspaper subscription for it.
Papers face a tough competitor: their own Web sites, where the information is free. And they have trained a generation of new readers to expect free news. In Holland, the iLiad comes with a one-year subscription for €599, or $855. The cost of each additional year is €189, or $270, making the marginal price of the reader €410. NRC offers just one electronic edition of the paper a day, while Les Echos updates its iRex version 10 times a day.
A number of newspapers, including The New York Times, whose global edition is the International Herald Tribune, offer electronic versions through the Kindle device; The Times on the Kindle costs $14 a month, similar to the cost of other papers.
Les Echos is also participating in an experiment sponsored by France Télécom that uses the iRex, along with five other major French dailies: Le Monde, Le Figaro, Le Parisien, Libération and L'Équipe.
Most electronic reading devices use E Ink's technology to create an image. Unlike liquid-crystal display of computer monitors and televisions, electronic paper technology does not need a backlight; remains displayed even when the power source runs down; and looks brighter, not dimmer, in strong light. It also draws little power from the device's battery.
Plastic Logic's first display, while offering a screen size that is 2.5 times larger than the Kindle, weighs just 2 ounces, or 56 grams, more and is about one-third the thickness of Kindle. It uses flexible, lightweight plastic, rather than glass.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/08/technology/paper.php

Newspaper 2.0 thinking.

Here's some Newspaper 2.0 thinking.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/08/style/04row.php



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International Herald Tribune
IHT
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http://www.montmartreabbesses.com

Does one edition of T magazine pay for entire NYT European bureau?

I've not been able to source this, so take it with a pinch of salt, but this is what I read somewhere:

"Paul Krugman was observing that even though the political coverage is the part of the media that people like to talk about, it's actually fairly marginal to the business. The New York Times is known for its hard news coverage, but he observes that from a business perspective it's primarily a fashion and food publication that runs a small political news operation on the side. One issue of T Magazine, he says, pays for an entire NYT European bureau."

Certainly the IHT can sometimes feel that way during fashion weeks.


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International Herald Tribune
IHT
New York Times
NYT

Vacation /Business Trip Furnished Apartment in Paris

What can the New York Times print at its College Point plant?

According to Editor and Publisher:

The Times' Goss Colorliner presses at its College Point plant can print four sections in one pass. Advance runs preprint sections, which are later mechanically combined with late-run news sections.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003846659




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International Herald Tribune
IHT
New York Times
NYT
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Associated Press on Changes to NYT metro area

NY Times to combine some sections in metro area
3 days ago
NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Times plans to reduce the number of standalone sections of the New York metropolitan editions of the newspaper, a move designed to save money by cutting labor costs.
No job cuts are expected as part of the changes announced Friday, though overtime expenses for employees at the New York Times Co.'s printing plant in Queens are expected to drop significantly, said spokeswoman Catherine Mathis.
The paper announced in a note to employees that the metro section will be folded into the paper's main news section, which includes national and international stories, for the Monday-Saturday editions.
The business and sports sections will be combined in Tuesday-Friday editions.
The changes will take effect Oct. 6 and won't lead to reductions in the amount of space devoted to metro or sports coverage. The changes make the New York editions of the paper look like the national edition of the paper.
"We are not reducing the space devoted to metro or sports news," Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the paper's publisher, said in the note to staff. "This is simply a way to produce the paper more efficiently."
The savings, which the paper would only describe as "significant," come from eliminating an early shift in the printing plant on certain days.
The paper added that the changes will allow the Times to add a standalone arts section in the Saturday paper and extend some deadlines for stories to be submitted for publication.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iTU94ke9sF4Hc1jEi1PcG1rqTYuwD930Q37O0

Sulzberger's memo to New York Times staff.

Question: when something big happens at the New York Times, and Keller and others send out memos, do they go to their employees at their global edition HQ in Paris and elsewhere?

I don't know - if you work for the IHT and don't get these memos, do let me know. Normal rules of confidentiality apply.

In case you missed it, here is Sulzberger's memo to NYT staff further to announcements late last Friday to combine its Metro and Sports sections into section A and Business Day, respectively, in Metropolitan editions, from the 6th October, 2008. The move is an attempt to save money by increasing the number of single print runs at the Queens printing facility.

To the Staff:

Given the business challenges we face, we are constantly looking for ways to reduce costs that do not affect the quality or quantity of the journalism we provide to our readers. Next month you will see one such way in the metropolitan edition of The Times.
Beginning Monday, Oct. 6, we will introduce a new layout of the paper by consolidating some sections. Metro will be integrated into the Main News section Monday through Saturday. Business and Sports will be combined into one section Tuesday through Friday. There will be no loss of content for readers. In fact, there will be some advantages -- a freestanding Saturday Arts section and a return to later deadlines for Business news on Monday -- and we are working to create later deadlines for culture coverage. The cost savings, which are significant, will come from the production savings of having a single run on more nights than we do today.
We are not reducing the space devoted to Metro or Sports news. This is simply a way to produce the paper more efficiently. These changes will affect the New York edition only, as the national edition is already configured in a similar fashion.
That said, we don’t make these changes lightly. We care deeply about what our New York readers think about their edition. We know that many of our readers like and are comfortable with our current layout. But after a good amount of reader research and exploring various options, we feel this is an effective way to reduce expenses while providing our readers with the breadth and depth of high-quality coverage they expect from us and we are committed to giving them.
Arthur

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Portfolio, New York Preparing Write-Around Profiles on Arthur Sulzberger Jr. (NYO)

Portfolio, New York Preparing Write-Around Profiles on Arthur Sulzberger Jr.
by John Koblin September 5, 2008

Two magazines are preparing profiles of The New York Times' Arthur Sulzberger, Jr.
New York magazine has assigned Joe Hagan to write a profile, and David Margolick is preparing a piece for Portfolio. Both articles are write-arounds, and neither author has scored an on-the-record interview with Mr. Sulzberger, according to a source familiar with the situation, who also says that Mr. Sulzberger has no plans to talk to either of the writers.
Mr. Margolick's story was scheduled to run in the October issue of Portfolio hitting newsstands on Sept. 23, but it was dropped at the last minute, sources said. The story may need to be recast. The magazine is still hopeful that Mr. Sulzberger may change his mind about an interview.
Both profiles are timed well. It's been an enormously eventful year for The Times, and Mr. Sulzberger personally. For the first time, the paper has resorted to newsroom layoffs; its stock price dropped to a decade low; the company allowed two hedge directors seats on its board (the first time since the paper went public that it has let outsiders take such positions); and after 33 years, Mr. Sulzberger and his wife, Gail Gregg, have separated.
According to sources, Mr. Hagan's piece is about the Sulzberger family and Mr. Margolick's original piece was a straight write-around on Mr. Sulzberger that did not probe his personal life. Mr. Margolick and Mr. Sulzberger have a previous relationship; they worked together on the Metro desk at the Times in the 1980s.
http://www.observer.com/2008/media/portfolio-new-york-magazine-preparing-write-around-profiles-arthur-sulzberger-jr#comments




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International Herald Tribune
IHT
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