News Execs Say Kindle Won't Save Newspapers

The Kindle DX

So is Amazon's new super-sized Kindle a possible savior for newspapers in dire financial straits?

Arianna Huffington thinks so. She was raving about the Kindle DX this week at the Senate subcommittee hearing on the future of newspapers.

But at that same hearing, Dallas Morning News CEO James Moroney said Amazon demands 70 percent of subscription revenue from newspapers, and requires content owners to grant Amazon the right to republish content to other devices.

"Now is that a business model that is going to work for newspapers? I get 30 percent and they get the right to license my content to any portable device—not just ones made by Amazon? That, to me, is not a model," Moroney told the senators.

The Kindle, he added, isn't a "platform that's going to save newspapers in the near term."

News Corp. Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch expressed similar sentiments in published reports this week.

“We will not be ceding our content rights to the fine people who created the Kindle," Murdoch said. "We will control the prices for our content and we will control our relationships with our customers. Any device maker or website which doesn’t meet these basic criteria on content will not be doing business long-term with News Corporation."

The New York Times, The Boston Globe and The Washington Post said this week they will offer readers outside their home delivery areas discounts on the Kindle in exchange for longer subscription terms.

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