Newspaper is almost dead - could be a way to resurrect them!

The newspaper industry is almost dead, it seems. They are consolidating into larger entities that have declining readership.

What they have not figured out - there is a reason why papers have different readership... it is because of the content. Consolidating the different papers into a unified paper, to save costs, wind up alienating the readership.

If newspapers could find a way to distribute the content, without the printing & distribution costs, this could keep them from having to consolidate and lose readership... especially if they can see some reoccurring revenue from it. These readers may be the trick.

Of course, someone astutely suggested that a laptop is the answer. I think that is the answer now, since they are much more portable than an old PC. It is still inconvenient to pick up off of a chair, plug it in, boot it up, supply a password, deal with virus software, software upgrades, crashes, etc. A laptop is just a nightmare, in comparison to an embedded system.

A flat machine the same form factor (and weight) of a book is really what is needed - something you can easily turn on and off (proximity sensor, like an iPhone while on a call?) An inductive pad to charge through would be perfect. No connectors.

Let's see if they do it right.