How’s this for a disturbing reminder of how hard it is for newspapers to manage costs: Silicon Valley Insider did some back-of-the-napkin math based on published figures by the New York Times and came to the conclusion that printing and distributing the newspaper costs twice as much as buying every subscriber a Kindle instead.
Are we trying to say the the New York Times should force all its print subscribers onto the Kindle or else? No. That would kill ad revenues and also, not everyone loves the Kindle.
What we’re trying to say is that as a technology for delivering the news, newsprint isn’t just expensive and inefficient; it’s laughably so.
Prediction: 2009 isn’t going to be any easier on the newspaper industry than 2008 was.
Tags: kindle, newspaper, times