Thanks partially to the Kindle‘s Whispernet connection feature, new and innovative ways of distributing all sorts of content are likely to emerge. For example, Tribune Media Services announced this week that it would create a Kindle-exclusive magazine called Opinionated: Voices and Viewpoints on America and the World.
Currently the print magazine business is going through some challenging times. If it’s not higher paper costs—or more advertisers going online or a decline in subscribers—you also have to face the fact that Walmart is cutting almost 1,000 titles from its shelves. Why fight those odds when you can launch in the happy world of no inventory management or manufacturing costs?
Just one real question: Why Amazon move enough Kindles?
The only real question is whether enough Kindles can be sold to make this a profitable venture for Tribune Media Services. Since it’s exclusive to the Kindle, I have to assume Amazon was willing to make this a sweeter deal for the Trib service than for other magazine publishers, especially in the short term while Amazon works to address the Kindle supply issue.
Moderator: Many thank to Joe for this discovery. So what are the issues raised here? Is the new service yet one more indication that the easy-to-use Kindle will appeal more to print-oriented readers than will alternatives? And what about an issue raised on Peter Branley‘s list—the question of a walled-in garden approach vs. a traditional Web one? – D.R.
I’m the editor and publisher of “Opinionated.” In my “day job” I’m VP of Marketing and IP Licensing at Tribune Media Services, a content syndicate. Only about 5% of our 200+ info providers come from Tribune properties and we sell to Tribune competitors, so this is not a Tribune newspaper project. They’ll need to fend for themselves.
First, we got NO special deals from Amazon – just the standard one with some non-financial tweaks.
When I first heard about the Kindle last summer two things struck me: 1) most people will focus on the device, which is WRONG and 2) what an amazing way to create new and different content products and brands and have a shot at getting shelf space and traction at very, very low cost — if you have access to compelling content.
On point number 1, I view the Kindle as a new multimedia platform every bit as potent (potentially) as blogs have been. The device (and providers – watch your back Amazon) will improve, get cheaper, enable advertising, etc. It is the ability to get access to and comfortably enjoy short AND long-form content anywhere at any time at one bundled price that is revolutionary. I’ve ordered a magazine while stuck in a plane on a runway at O’Hare for four hours and a book while in the middle of the Okefenokee (where I also used its primitive Web browser to find the commercial boat dock we were looking for). Of course the device is critical for long term for consumer uptake and success, but that will come if Amazon can stay the course.
Number 2 is the killer in my opinion. I have compelling content — lots of it. It is doled out in bits and pieces to newspapers, Web sites, magazines, etc. I have enough stuff in many categories to create compelling themed publications. In the past the cost of creating a traditional magazine was a barrier to entry to the market. I know . . . we tried to launch two and failed miserably.
But now Amazon does nearly all the work and uses its bully pulpit to promote and distribute. That means I can combine short pieces and longer think pieces on politics and economics from people like Arianna Huffington, Henry Kissinger, Garrison Keillor and others in a simple, enjoyable aggregated publication at virtually no cost to me. I select the relevant columns, drag them to the right folders, write an editors note (and soon to come I hope letters from readers), post it to Amazon and a day and half later its up there ready for trial or download. No out of pocket cost and no more than an hour or two of my time.
Early days and free-trial days), but over the past 2 days we’ve been in the top ten most popular of all Kindle content (#5 last time I checked) with a couple of spot-on good reviews. I think one of our key discriminators and something not possible without the Kindle is that we can publish an aggregate of longer “think” pieces in a simplified format on themes that would never be financially possible in a print or Web product (the latter is too hard to read where most people like to read). And we’re tailoring our offerings to the device, not just pushing the newspaper or magazine onto another platform.
Although it is still experimental, ultimately, for people like me, the Kindle platform is an excellent way to create, test and launch new content brands for a very low cost. I’m already being contacted with brand extension proposals for “Opinionated” and internally we’re looking at creating a series of themed syndicated packages based on the “opinionated” brand.
Sorry to be so “long-form” here. Hope it was useful.
Steve, I love thoughtful, long-form replies, and so do most TeleBlog readers—we’re different from many sites. Thanks for taking the trouble to write one for us, outlining your views in detail. See a just-posted item suggesting that TMS might want to continue the Kindle experiment but at the same time investigate other alternatives and meanwhile encourage the IDPF to get serious about .epub for applications such as yours. – David Rothman, moderator, TeleRead
David – Thanks for the updates on the POD issue (I wasn’t aware of it) and .epub. I’ll investigate.
For the record, Kindle exclusivity is not contractual nor did Amazon ever ask for it. At this point, this is the only place readers can get this aggregation of columnists, so in that sense it is a Kindle exclusive.
I don’t know enough about the “monopolistic practices” issues with Amazon to comment. Market leadership can open up the doors for both wonderful and not so wonderful things, and in my experience a huge operation like Amazon (and Microsoft, and Apple and so on…) usually do a mixture of both. In fact, if the POD issue is what I read it as, it would appear to be similar to what Steve Jobs has done for years with iTunes, iPhone and other products. That’s not excusing it by any means if it is a restrictive use of near monopolistic power, but at this point it is what it is and I’d expect the markets and the government to deal with it. Not the same thing as these companies “doing the right thing,” but all we’ve got.
Opinionated has been successful in early phase on the Kindle, if success is measured as subscription “sales” (I put that in quotes because it includes the 14-day free trial). The first week it remained in the top 10 of all Kindle products and over the last two weeks has hovered between #12 and the high 20s (it is currently at #20). I won’t get my first Amazon numbers until 4/15, so won’t get a sense for trial conversion until then.
The Kindle is certainly not the only channel I intend to send Opinionated and the other publications I’m developing down, but it is the first and as far as I know the only one right now that enables me to publish, promote, distribute and, very important, build a new brand at a cost I can afford. In that sense it is revolutionary and one of those good things that big, innovative companies do.
So this is an experiment for us and, as I joke with friends, a way for me to add “editor” and “publisher” to my resume.
Steve (Tippie, BTW, not “Trippie”)
Hi, Steve. Delighted you won’t be Kindle-exclusive forever. I really hope you’ll hang around the TeleBlog and maybe even contribute to the main part–I can give you an account.
We’re an important forum on etext standards issues, and with the right standards, Opinionated and other publications will have more choices. A key is to persuade Amazon to go with the IDPF’s .epub standard. You could then more easily reposition the material in a variety of places, even though Amazon could still enjoy its impressive marketing power.
In your case, you could benefit from .epub making it possible to encapsulate Web sites and make better use of linking. Jon Noring, one of our contributors and the real expert on this issue, could give you an earful and help you ask Amazon the right questions. Meanwhile my continued best wishes toward the success of your experiment. – David (who apologizes for the little glitch and just made the typo fix)
David – I’d be glad to contribute to the main blog.
Steve
If you have a Kindle and can get Opinionated, make sure you read my editor’s note in this week’s issue. I had a bit of fun with a story on electronic books in The New York Observer’s First Annual Survey of Magazines. If you don’t have access, just email me and I’ll send you a copy.
Steve
Thanks, Steve. An email will be along shortly with some ideas on possible topics for you to write about for us. Looking forward to seeing your editor’s note via email (and, if possible, the rest of the issue). David