{"id":6176,"date":"2007-12-14T09:45:11","date_gmt":"2007-12-14T09:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/e-commerce\/custom-readers-the-future-of-newspapers.html"},"modified":"2007-12-14T09:45:11","modified_gmt":"2007-12-14T09:45:11","slug":"custom-readers-the-future-of-newspapers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/e-commerce\/custom-readers-the-future-of-newspapers.html","title":{"rendered":"Custom Readers: The Future of Newspapers?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">While the internet news revolution continues to move along, I have recently become fascinated with proprietary readers. For example The New York Times offers a <a href=\"http:\/\/select.nytimes.com\/gst\/timesreader.html\"><font color=\"#800080\">reader<\/font><\/a> which requires a paid download for nonsubscribers and runs on Microsoft based operating systems.<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">Then there is Amazon&rsquo;s Kindle, a wireless book\/RSS reader about the size of a small paperback. I wondered what sorts of content people read on the Kindle and a quick check of the Amazon Kindle <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Kindle-Amazons-Wireless-Reading-Device\/dp\/B000FI73MA\"><font color=\"#800080\">site<\/font><\/a> shows some of their most popular downloads are the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Le Monde.<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\"><img decoding=\"async\" hspace=\"3\" align=\"left\" vspace=\"3\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/uploads\/wall-street-journal-mobile-reader.gif\" \/>Perhaps spurred on by the notion of providing news on the go, the Wall Street Journal has been pushing the fact that their news is mobile friendly. In addition, the company is dipping its toes in the mobile reader market with the beta offering of a mobile <a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/public\/page\/mobile_download.html\"><font color=\"#800080\">reader<\/font><\/a> for Windows Mobile devices.<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">I downloaded the software by entering my carrier and phone number on this <a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/public\/page\/mobile_download.html\"><font color=\"#800080\">web page<\/font><\/a> and a few moments later I received an SMS message with a web link which I clicked on.<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">Within about 90 seconds the program was downloaded and running.<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">The software interface was quite attractive and you are able to see news of various types from a variety of countries. In addition, you are able to see videos which are streamed to the device&rsquo;s media player.<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">The downside to these custom applications is that they are specific to individual news sources and devices &#8212; but for ultra-loyal customers this isn&rsquo;t a huge deterrent.<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">I suppose the biggest reason for the dissemination of custom readers by newspapers is to ensure people get more of their news from them. Indeed, software like the Google <a href=\"ttp:\/\/www.google.com\/reader\/view\/#overview-page\">reader<\/a> is extremely easy to use and mobile-friendly making customer readers less necessary.<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">It is tough to see where custom readers will be more than a niche but still they are a great way to keep diehard loyalists faithful to your news site. What&rsquo;s your opinion? Do you use custom readers?<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While the internet news revolution continues to move along, I have recently become fascinated with proprietary readers. For example The New York Times offers a reader which requires a paid download for nonsubscribers and runs on Microsoft based operating systems. &nbsp; Then there is Amazon&rsquo;s Kindle, a wireless book\/RSS reader about the size of a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6176"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6176\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}