WHAT'S NEXT: INNOVATIONS IN NEWSPAPERS

Kindle?

On sale on eBay.

RIP.

Andrew Clark reports at the Sunday Morning Herald:

• Rupert Murdoch said the iPad and the Kindle would be ”unloved and unsold” without creativity from companies like his News Corporation.

• Tablet computers, e-readers and smartphones would be unloved ”empty vessels” without quality creative content.

• He revealed the company was in ”advanced discussions” with hand-held device manufacturers about a subscription model allowing people to access media content ”whenever and wherever they want it”.

• ”Content is not just king, it is the emperor of all things digital,” he said. ”We’re on the cusp of a digital revolution from which our shareholders will profit handsomely.”

• In a reference to technology such as Apple’s iPad and Amazon’s Kindle, he said such ”fabulous devices” would be ”unloved and unsold” without creativity from companies such as his own, adding they were powered by content – not batteries.

• ”Instead of the existential debate about value, now we’re merely arguing about valuation,” he said. ”Consumers want content delivered immediately and on a variety of devices. They’re willing to pay to be entertained and informed.”

Amazon and Google are great companies.

But Apple is a more innovative one.

In today’s Observer, John Naughton writes, again, a great column with some strong remarks:

First, forget about Kindle.

“While the Kindle is probably the best of the current eReader breed, it is actually a rather clunky and primitive device.”

Yes, it’s is a bluff.

Second, forget about Google gadgets:

“Google devices (like the Android phone) are excellent in their way, but seem haphazard and unfinished in comparison with the slickly-unified and predictable Apple device.”

Yes, Sir.

Third, stay with Apple:

“If Apple does produce an iPad/iSlate, things will suddenly become very interesting. At present, devices such as the Kindle are like the Daimler “horseless carriage” of 1886: the only difference is that the nag has been replaced by the engine. For electronic reading to become more than a way of carrying lots of texts around, eReaders have to become devices that add significant value to the reading experience. The only company that stands a chance of bringing that off is Apple.”

Wait and see the Apple iPad/Slate/Tablet/Guide!

(Picture by Bill Thompson)

Yes, the Apple Tablet, “Slate” or “Guide” is coming.

Like the ones from HP, Dell and others.

But, let’s remember a few basic ideas:

1. The problem is the quality, exclusivity and accessibility of our content, not the platforms.

2. Kindle or Apple tablet are not the solutions.

3. As Jeff Jarvis said: “Newspaper publishers must unleash their news on every device possible. No single gadget will be their saviour”

So, information does need “paper jails” nor new technological jails.

What we need to worry is not about these new devices, but the old assembly-line-one deadline-one platform newsroom management system that still prevails in 99% of our newspapers.

We need more “one kitchen, several restaurants” newsroom multimedia models.

We need to focus in multimedia content management.

We need to migrate from media companies to “information engines.”

And from readers to audiences and communities.

Technology is not the problem, nor the solution.

So, welcome the tablets, and better if they become as soon as possible rubber tablets.

And let’s concentrate in how to migrate from monomedia to multimedia newsrooms.

Be ready!

This is a fascinating and candid talk.

Intended as an”off the record” talk, it was leaked, and you can read and watch it here at the Nieman JournalismLab website.

For me the most striking impression is this:

The editor of The New York Times talks like as if his newsroom was going to be integrated.

Well, this is an old, old story.

Too old to be news today.

And it’s amazing to me that these basic goals still have not be preached by the New York Times that is, according Bill Keller, “the most innovative online publisher in the business.”

Oh, boy, that too much!

Just read these quotes from the speech:

• Prioritizing the web is “our Manhattan Project.”

• The single best advice we’ve gotten, I think, is to spend some time living without print. And we’ve both been trying to do that, trying to experience The New York Times and our competition mostly on screens — iPhone, laptop, Kindle, Times Reader –- trying to better understand the joys and frustrations of our journalism delivered online.

• I think everyone agrees that over the past four-plus years, we’ve come a long way in breaking down the psychological, cultural, and organizational barriers that isolated print from digital. But the gospel still needs preaching

• We understand that The New York Times is, and has to be, a technology company as well as a journalism company.

• As long as we’re doing journalism on separate publishing systems, we will not be an integrated newsroom.

• We need to figure out the right journalistic product to deliver to mobile platforms and devices.

Well, you better go faster or you will be late, very late.

And you will not make it!