Tag Archives: Kindle

Delayed Kindle edition for Herald set to launch soon

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The Herald in Glasgow is expecting to launch an edition for the Amazon Kindle within the next few weeks, following a disagreement with Amazon about delays in the approval process.

The publisher says on its site:

We will be launching a Kindle edition of The Herald soon and are currently going through the approval process with Amazon.

You may have seen our previous notice on this page where we said that Amazon had told us they were putting on hold the launch of any further newspaper publications on the Kindle. We’re delighted to say though that they have now agreed to get The Herald edition up and running as soon as they can.

The Herald previously said that Amazon had stopped approving newspapers for the Kindle – but this claim was denied in a statement to PaidContent:

We are not always able to immediately launch every publisher who contacts us using our more heavyweight integration method. For publishers that want to add their newspaper onto Kindle in self-service fashion, they can also do so via the Amazon Appstore for Android.

Ten free apps in the Chrome web store that journalists should know about

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Google’s Chrome web store, containing web apps, browser extensions, games and themes, launched in the UK in September following a US release in February.

You can access the store via the Chrome browser homepage and toggle between your “most visited” websites and available “apps”.

Here are 10 free apps and extensions in the Chrome web store that are useful tools for journalists.

1. Duedil

This is the browser extension enhancing an invaluable site for journalists working across all sectors. Duedil allows you to view company financial information, lists of directors and more in clear graphs and charts.

Click on any website and then the browser extension and you can look up the financial information on that firm. It may need assistance in recognising the correct company, however.

For example, if I am on the Guardian’s website and click the browser extension, I will get details for a company called Guardian Education Interactive. I must then select “not the company I am looking for” and enter Guardian Media Group. Clicking on a director’s name, such as in this case Alan Rusbridger, links me through to the full Duedil website.

2. SocialBro

This is a web app for Twitter and social media analytics. Sync your account/s and you will see a dashboard where you can find out the best time to tweet, map your followers and see the ratio of followers to friends.

3. News readers

Okay, this is a group of browser extensions and web apps but worth mentioning as one category. The Guardian, Independent, and several other national newspapers have opted for Chrome extensions, allowing you to read the headlines from your browser.

The New York Times has opted for a web app with more story detail, which fills the browser.

4. iPiccy

This web app is a simple image photo editor and handy for any journalists who have to prepare images for the web.

5. Transcribe

If you record interviews and play them back later to transcribe them this is a must have app. It gets round the problem of playing audio in one application (such as iTunes) and then writing in a text document.

Add your mp3 or wav audio file and you can transcribe by typing in the box below the player. It also works offline. One of the great features are the short cuts: alt+p = pause/resume, alt+i = rewind two seconds, alt+o = forward two seconds.

6. Mappeo

Mappeo is a useful web app for regional reporters or anyone covering a localised story, such as a protest. Open the app and you will see a map of geolocated videos that have been uploaded to YouTube. You can click on the icon to launch and play the video.

7. Aviary audio editor

This is a great free app for broadcast journalists and podcasters. Simply upload audio in a variety of formats, select whether this is private to you or public, and decide how you want to licence it.

8. SEO SERP

There are lots of SEO tools in the Chrome web store. SEO SERP is a useful browser extension for any journalists mindful of web traffic and keywords.

For example, type “journalism jobs” and see Journalism.co.uk is top of the Google rankings, or (as below) type in keywords such as Leveson and see who is ranked top.

9. TinEye

Add this browser extension, right click on a picture or upload an image and you can find out where else it has been used. It could be a valuable journalism tool to verify photographs. It can even scan for reversed images.

10. Kindle it

This is a handy option for Kindle users. It allows you to send web pages to your Kindle for reading later.

 

Guardian launches Kindle edition and outlines new mobile plans

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The Guardian has launched its Kindle edition of the Guardian and Observer, which is said to carry content from the day’s newspaper and will be available to download seven days a week in the UK, US and more than 100 other countries.

In a post outlining the launch the Guardian says the edition is available to download from Amazon for a 14-day free trial, after which it will be priced at £9.99 a month in the UK, or £0.99 per issue.

The post also outlines two launches on the horizon for iPad and Android.

We’ve been working on iPad over the past few months and we’re currently testing it with some of our readers. Our objective has been to produce the most accessible, elegant interpretation of the Guardian newspaper for iPad and we hope we’re close to achieving that aim.

According to the Guardian, which recently announced a digital-first strategy, the new app will see the newspaper redesigned “exclusively in tablet form”.

The app will deliver a single daily edition of content, specifically curated for iPad. Like Kindle, it will be a subscription product, though we will be releasing it with a free trial period from launch.

The Guardian’s first Android app is due to launch in autumn and a new product for the HP TouchPad called Guardian Zeitgeist is also in the pipeline.

Times and Sunday Times reach 79,000 digital subscribers

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A total of 79,000 people have subscribed to read the Times and Sunday Times online, on the iPad and on the Kindle, according to figures released by owner News International yesterday. The number represents an increase of 29,000 over the previous five months.

News International claims that overall readership of digital and print editions for the newspapers have risen by 20,000, despite a sharp decrease in the circulation of the print edition of the Times, which has fallen 12.1 per cent within the last year, and the Sunday Times, which has fallen by 6.9 per cent.

News International has not released a breakdown of digital subscribers into those reading online, via the iPad or via the Kindle, but reported that total sales of digital products stood at 222,000 at the end of February, up from 105,000 on 31 October.

Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News International said that the figures represent that “ever larger numbers of people are willing to pay for quality journalism across a variety of digital formats”.

She added: “Our industry is being redefined by technology and we will no longer measure the sales and success of our newspapers in print circulation terms alone.”

An online subscription to the Times and the Sunday Times costs £2; an iPad subscription costs £9.99 a month or £1 for one-day’s access to the Times and £1.79 for the Sunday Times.

Android app update allows users to purchase Kindle newspapers

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On Friday Amazon announced that its Kindle for Android app is the first of its Kindle apps to receive an update that enables users to buy, read and sync more than 100 Kindle newspapers and magazines.

Kindle for Android users can now buy a single issue or subscribe to the most popular newspapers and magazines, have them automatically delivered to their Android-powered device, and enjoy a full color reading experience optimized for the touch interface of Android-powered devices.

TechCrunch: Amazon opens e-reading to short form with Kindle Singles

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Amazon will open up its Kindle e-reading platform to shorter pieces of work with the launch of Kindle Singles. Writes TechCrunch:

It sounds like anyone can submit a story or piece to be included as a Kindle Single, and Amazon is using the announcement as a “call to serious writers, thinkers, scientists, business leaders, historians, politicians and publishers” to submit writings.

Full story on TechCrunch at this link…

paidContent:UK: Publishers should skip thinking about e-readers

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paidContent:UK’s Robert Andrews picks up a Radio 5 Live discussion on e-readers and shares his own view: that single function readers are no magic pill for publishers.

An ‘e-reader’ is a mere neologism – conceived by those who seek to replicate an old, physical medium in modern, electronic form. But newspapers have spent the last 15 years divorcing their content from the physicality of their origin medium – not only does charging on what looks like a plastic newspaper fly in the face of that strategy, it’s also going to be rather difficult when few mechanisms beyond Kindle’s Whispernet truly exist – in the rush to build e-readers, manufacturers are all pulling in their own direction.

Full post at this link…

#Outlook2010: There’s a business opportunity in e-readers, says NYTimes circulation VP

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Last week Journalism.co.uk attended the INMA and Online Publishers Association (OPA) Europe’s annual conference Outlook 2010 – the event focused on innovation, transformation and making money for media businesses. Follow our coverage at this link.

“There’s a real opportunity for paid electronic products,” Yasmin Namini, senior vice president of circulation at the New York Times, told delegates last week.

Namini was specifically referring to the NYTimes’ experience in this area – the paper created a unique ‘bundled’ offering with Amazon’s Kindle. The NYTimes Kindle offer at $499-a-year was the latest version of the e-reader (the DX), in a NYTimes branded leather wallet and came with a year’s subscription to the paper’s Kindle edition.

Sounds like a hefty price tag – but to buy a Kindle DX is $489 and it’s £168 for a one-year NYTimes subscription on the device.

“We wanted to test our capabilities to sell a device and a subscription as a bundle,” explains Namini.

The deal was launched as a test at the end of September and nearly every available NYTimes-Kindle has been sold. Furthermore the offer was only marketed (via an e-mail campaign) to expired subscribers to the print edition and potential readers outside of print home-delivery routes. The first sale was made within 10 minutes of the e-mails being sent out, adds Namini.

Similar trials have also been run by the Washington Post and the Boston Globe, according to a release from Amazon.

Some caveats from Namini to publishers looking to launch similar packages – publishers should:

  • Maintain the billing relationship with the customer
  • Determine the pricepoint for customer
  • Have access to customer data

Kindle expanding to more than 100 countries

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According to a Reuters report, Amazon’s e-reader, the Kindle, will now be sold in a further 100+ countries, including China.

While significant for the digital book market, the move is also of interest to publishers investing in e-editions or e-reading technologies.

Many high profile newspapers are available on a Kindle: the Financial Times, Times, Daily Mail and USA Today to name but a few.

This expansion could see new news clients for Amazon; potentially more Kindle-specific editions from publishers, such as that launched by Tribune Co.

A wider Kindle audience worldwide could also help publishers build their reach and possible revenue streams.

Business Insider: Chart of the Day – 24% of US newspapers don’t use digital delivery platforms

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Courtesy of Silicon Alley Insider’s ‘Business Insider’, a chart showing that 24 per cent of US newspapers do not use any digital delivery platforms to spread their online content.

“The American Press Institute asked 2,400 newspaper executives if their papers ‘provide access to stories or information such as sports scores, headlines, stock quotes, etc.,’ via Twitter, Facebook, Email alerts, Mobile/PDA, YouTube, Kindle, Flickr, e-readers, etc., and told them to ‘check all that apply.'”

24 per cent of all respondents answered ‘None at this time’.

Business Insider post at this link…