Mathew's comments - Latest Comments in Amazon’s Kindle: pay to read blogs? WTF?

Re: Amazon’s Kindle: pay to read blogs? WTF?

Raymond — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 06:38:06 -0000

I think this is unfair for all the bloggers around the world. Amazon was not the one who writes the blog, why the heck would he ask for a payment for something that he didn't publish?

Come to think about it, Amazon is serving us with Whispernet for free.. So do you think they will compensate the payment from whispernet through the means of paid subscription on blogs?

And, if this is the point.. Then should we also say that Amazon must divide the earnings to the bloggers?

Re: Amazon’s Kindle: pay to read blogs? WTF?

mathewi — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 16:56:01 -0000

I agree, Karoli. It seems like a gadget with no obvious reason for
being. Kind of like the Segway :-)

Re: Amazon’s Kindle: pay to read blogs? WTF?

Karoli — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 16:40:01 -0000

I don't get the whole concept. First of all, what is the point of the keyboard if you're reading, not writing? Second, I know of no eBook reader that's been even moderately successful no matter how much buzz there is around it, so why would they put any effort into this? Being a bookworm myself, I'd much rather have that new book with the freshly-printed smell and smooth paper in my hand.

The only application that I can see for a device like this is educational. If textbooks can be put on it, it would be helpful for students. But even then, college students would just as soon have it on their laptop, and K-12 students wouldn't necessarily be trusted to keep it operational, so I'm not sure it's a great solution for that either.

Re: Amazon’s Kindle: pay to read blogs? WTF?

wraith808 — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 15:29:13 -0000

Fictionwise.com? Mobipocket.com? I can do it from either from my Blackjack... and did it on my mx220 and my HTC Star Trek... this isn't new.

Re: Amazon’s Kindle: pay to read blogs? WTF?

panamajack — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 23:23:46 -0000

Wraith, where can you wirelessly download new releases (in any format) for $9.99?

Heck, where can you download any major new hardcover release for $9.99 ?

Re: Amazon’s Kindle: pay to read blogs? WTF?

wraith808 — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:16:42 -0000

Being able to download books wirelessly... I already do that on my phone. And my phone does other stuff. Like... make calls. And i can carry it with me anywhere. I jumped on the whole dedicated reader thing when it came out a few years ago, and didn't like it. And I don't see anything compelling about this entry, either.

Re: Amazon’s Kindle: pay to read blogs? WTF?

panamajack — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 10:43:02 -0000

I suppose Amazon sees this precisely as a way to *creatively* charge for the EVDO bandwidth in an ala carte fashion (while also trying to make a buck for themselves and their affliated A-list bloggers) ... which does make a bit of sense when considering that your Kindle book purchase is directly subsidizing the bandwidth as well. Certainly though the web has come full circle when it comes to providing free content (when is the G&M going to drop online subscriptions a la the NYT and WSJ by the way ?).

How much would you personally pay to have unlimited RSS feeds downloadable whereever you go? How about a selection of any 20 blogs provided ? I think the latter at $5 a month would be my pricepoint.

Oh but why oh why so fugly !

Re: Amazon’s Kindle: pay to read blogs? WTF?

GearsofWar — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 19:08:55 -0000

They are paying a kickback to the bloggers listed, based on subscriptions sold:
http://www.amazon.com/ref=kinw_ddp/b?node=24164...

Now, correlate that list with how those blogs are currently covering the launch, given they have been given a stake in its success :p

Re: Amazon’s Kindle: pay to read blogs? WTF?

pants part deux — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 18:56:29 -0000

wow. this thing looks like a medical device.
awesome.
dont let motorola see this! they will want to add a camera + mp3 player to it!

Re: Amazon’s Kindle: pay to read blogs? WTF?

mathewi — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 17:52:01 -0000

It's something you have to sign up with Amazon to be part of, Hal --
as PaidContent and others have. That raises an interesting question
though: if I pay for those feeds on the Kindle, do they come with ads?

Re: Amazon’s Kindle: pay to read blogs? WTF?

HalJ — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 17:48:03 -0000

Wait, as a blogger, are they going to pay US to allow our blogs to stream on their device? If not, I'll look for a way to block it. Blogs are monetized by ads, and how would I make money from those readers? Surely we could block their IP range from accessing our work.

Re: Amazon’s Kindle: pay to read blogs? WTF?

Constance Reader — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 13:06:28 -0000

It looks like some sort of handheld medical device, like a heart or blood sugar monitor. Now THAT'S ugly.

And for $399? My library card is free, my books don't need batteries and they won't be destroyed if I drop them.

I can also see air travel hassles. I travel a lot for business and I've seen several occasions on which a traveler patiently tried to explain what "airplane mode" means to a flight attendant who refused to listen. You'd think the airlines would have sent a memo or something, but...

Re: Amazon’s Kindle: pay to read blogs? WTF?

mathewi — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 08:50:49 -0000

I assume they're going to make deals with certain blogs, Matthew. At least that's the way I read the Newsweek story.

Re: Amazon’s Kindle: pay to read blogs? WTF?

mathewi — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 08:49:19 -0000

If Amazon wants to charge for the wireless access, that's fine with me. Charging for the content is a different story.

Are they going to have tiers or packages like cable? You can have a bundle with Proust, Dostoevsky, the New York Times and PaidContent, but not Engadget, unless you get the sports package... what a nightmare.

Re: Amazon’s Kindle: pay to read blogs? WTF?

mathewi — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 08:46:03 -0000

Aaron, I don't have any content woes -- I read things on the Internet and they are free, apart from what I pay to access the Internet. If Amazon wants to charge a fee for the wireless access, that makes sense to me -- but then I already pay a fee for my cellphone, and I can read any blog or information source I want to on there as easily as I can on the Kindle.

Re: Amazon’s Kindle: pay to read blogs? WTF?

mathewi — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 08:42:47 -0000

Tell you what, Ryan -- let's cut Jeff out of the loop and I'll send you the 99 cents a month directly :-)

Re: Amazon’s Kindle: pay to read blogs? WTF?

David — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 05:22:56 -0000

It doesn't look so ugly if you look at the final product, which is a tone whiter than the FCC leaked one.

Check out http://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.p... for some real photos.

Re: Amazon’s Kindle: pay to read blogs? WTF?

danielha — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 02:44:54 -0000

I didn't look into the Kindle at all really, but it looks like an uglier way more expensive Sony Reader.

Re: Amazon’s Kindle: pay to read blogs? WTF?

Aaron Huslage — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 02:20:41 -0000

You forget that there apparently is *no* monthly service fee associated with the device. I'm sure you (or someone you know and love) pays for your bandwidth at your home or office.

Charging a small monthly fee for certain things makes sense (although .99 seems a bit steep) given the network connectivity that you're getting for free if you don't download anything onto the device. Someone has to pay the bills.

Amazon, whomever they're buying their wireless from and the blog publishers are not charities. They want to build an industry and if they need to actually <gasp> charge money for stuff then we as consumers will need to assign value to those things.

Just going OMG they're gonna CHARGE for something that I read for Free( like this blog...the one with ADS all over it that pay for it) is not the solution to solving your content woes, my friend.

Re: Amazon’s Kindle: pay to read blogs? WTF?

Ryan Block — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 01:41:29 -0000

Thanks! Although I might be 5% more flattered if you felt we were worth paying for, too.

Re: Amazon’s Kindle: pay to read blogs? WTF?

Tony — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 00:30:12 -0000

Amazon is in favor of DRM-free these days (as evidenced by their MP3 store). I don't think they'd do DRM books since that's not really their style.

Re: Amazon’s Kindle: pay to read blogs? WTF?

Matthew Miller — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 00:25:44 -0000

I was under the impression that bloggers would pay the monthly fee to be featured on the Kindle, not that people would pay to subscribe to blogs. If people had to pay for blogs, wouldn't Amazon have to pay the bloggers for monetizing their content? I don't think Amazon can charge for content that I write and intend to make free to people, can they?

Re: Amazon’s Kindle: pay to read blogs? WTF?

Douglas E. Welch — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 00:23:13 -0000

Of course, the blog subscription serivce also begs the question, if Amazon is making money off a blog, where does the creator of that blog sign up to get their cut of the profits. Every content creator deserves to be compensated when money is made off their content, regardless of how its delivered.

Is Amazon contracting with certain bloggers to make their content available for a fee? One would hope.

Douglas

Re: Amazon’s Kindle: pay to read blogs? WTF?

wrs — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 00:03:59 -0000

Well, the Kindle is a kind of service, isn't it? So why not try to charge for it? Being bound to sit on a computer to read blogs is a drawback.

I think Bezo's approach is perfectly in the line of Techdirts unified theory on the economics of free.

Re: Amazon’s Kindle: pay to read blogs? WTF?

IRWebReport — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 22:41:31 -0000

$399? BEFORE I read anything, including stuff that used to be free? Wad dem smokin' indeed.