Who says you can’t take it with you? Well, at least with respect to the Engage, Inc. blog for Amazon’s Kindle users, that saying certainly no longer applies. That’s right, Engage’s content is now syndicated for Amazon Kindle readers in addition to RSS, Feedburner and the like.
It’s not that anyone expects Engage to receive its first $8 check (the smallest increment before Amazon will cut a check to the content provider) for its subscriptions anytime soon (though that would be nice). It’s also not because despite all logic to the contrary I still find myself wanting a Kindle (I really do, there’s something less ‘work-like’ about having a Kindle under my arm instead of my trusted tabletPC). It’s certainly not because there are so many Kindle readers out there today that it’s a critical market for Engage to gain a ‘first mover’ advantage.
All things considered, it’s an experiment really – much like how we get into a lot of technology over time, there’s something attractive to it – there’s some satisfaction to knowing that our content is now ‘there’ – that just maybe someone will pay the ninety-nine cents a month to get our feeds and that even in lieu of that, that we can at least learn a little more about something that may be the start of a growing number of devices that have the potential to change publishing and distribution in fundamental ways over time – both personally and professionally.
Case in point. I’ve been traveling to and from Washington, DC a lot lately. A few weeks ago I had the fortune of sitting next to a gentleman who had spent his entire life in and around publishing. In fact, his father had been in publishing before him. Through our conversation I was able to find a bit of a kindred spirit, albeit one from a former generation with a TON of domain specific knowledge I didn’t have, and relive a bit of what journalism was like in my youth; when news was news, not entertainment.
As I listened to him retell a few chapters from his multi-generational story; of how his father switched regrettably to an automatic typewriter from a manual; how the newspapers raced to modernize in many caases too late, many only to ultimately be handed over to third and fourth generation family members who were no longer interested in news nor publishing. As we shared thoughts and experiences, perspectives and postulates, I couldn’t help but wonder how much our society may be giving up in its process of modernization.
We talked about how today a story can shoot around the world from a single blog post by an unknown individual in less than a few seconds, yet with this type of convenience in information access what is missing often is the journalistic process – what has historically been the overhead that comes from the process of detailed fact checking, networks of sources and long term field work yielding status quo shattering storylines such as those of Woodward and Bernstein, Whitewater, McCarthyism or Chappaquiddick. How will stories of the magnitude of these be not only broken but backed by the extensive resources historically available to journalists?
I’m certianly not saying that journalists have in all cases been devoid of error, fraud and the justified scrutiny of their integrity, but as we spoke I became increasingly reminded of how critical a role journalism has played throughout our nation’s history. Journalism has, in many ways, been responsible in part for the formation and shaping of our nation. From Benjamin Franklin’s printing press to the Hearst / Pulitzer era of yellow journalism to the integrity of Walter Cronkite and eventually to the reality based soundbites of the various ‘news/entertainment’ outlets focusing on paparazzi today – one has to admit, journalists have made an impact throughout.
Will blogs and digital media take the place of more traditional outloets as the most influential medium? From all appearances, it’s already happened, but how many of the more traditional outlets will find their way successfully into the electronic publishing universe to stand the test of time? As so many newspapers across the country go silent and we spend an increasing amount of both our professional and personal time online, I have the sense that initiatives like ‘Government 2.0′ and ‘Social Media’ are going to absorb more of what has been the foundation for these more traditional outlets; however only time will tell how much technology is leveraged as a true enabler for democracy rather than being an additional channel through which, unopposed by ‘lighthousers’, ‘whistleblowers’ and ’sources’, it may instead become only another medium for targeted agendas.
Profoundly insightful, not so much. Deep, perhaps. I may have led you to what was in part my intent, that as a blogger I have the ability to reach some number of readers (you’re here, right?); that through audience participation I have the opportunity to influence and even create dialogue on some micro scale; that through distribution I have the ability to broaden and/or deepen the audience I reach in ways not even available five years ago; that through connecting with the reader at some basic level, even I might engender loyalty to create a following, a readership. ALL in this case, technically, without the printed word.
As such, it’s clearly no longer about the medium, but is it now any more about the message? Time and history have demonstrated that those living in the reactionary past (as comfortable as it may be) most often get eclipsed by those who dare step out into that brave new world. I can’t afford to get run over, so give me my Kindle. I know I’ll be using it or in the event it fails to gain market share, something like it with increasing frequency, not decreasing frequency, regardless of how much I like the ‘feel’ of reading.
Although I collect rare books and love the experience of having a good cup of Tea on Saturday mornings on my front porch with a newspaper between my hands; although I recall from my childhood hearing ‘and that’s the way it was’ booming from Walter Cronkite’s voice at the end of the nightly news, knowing he was full of nothing but integrity; although I am an empirically driven, environmentally conscious individual that has not yet put too much thought into how electronic versions of periodicals and publications might spare us from that ‘nth’ carbon emmission or from deforrestation of another acre of rainforest in search of paper pulp; I find myself drawn to the future. I have to explore. I have to learn. I have to grow. I know that now, since there’s at least one blog I read available on it, have to get a Kindle.
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