I'll stick with the paper.... or my Laptop...

http://www.newsweek.com/id/157580
This is an article on paperless newspapers that caught my eye. To me, putting current efforts into creating and marketing yet another electronic device customized purely to read an electronic newspaper is a major step backwards in today's Web 2.0 platform. In the age of trying to make everything compatible (or at least interoperable to some degree), why would we want to buy another proprietary device to carry around in our bag every day to read our newspaper(s)?

Proponents of this technology feel that people will be willing to pay for (or buy into) this monthly e-service because of it's convenience. Users wouldn't have to wrestle with a traditional newspaper on a train or in the car. They wouldn't miss the paper if they were traveling on business.. and this standalone device would give them a change of pace from staring at their computer screen to read a newspaper on-line. All of these reasons are logical and indisputable from the consumer's standpoint. From the newspaper's standpoint, this device would cut tremendous costs in printing, distribution, and traditional home delivery. The overall motivation mirrors that of Amazon's Kindle, geared towards textbooks (as covered in last week's Web 2.0 reading at http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/09/open-source-tex.html), which I DO believe will sustain longterm.

So, why won't e-newspapers work??? My position is simply the need for consolodating devices. We've been living through the lightning-speed advancements over the past 5-10 years in cellular phones, PDAs, and all consumer electronics for that matter. We've all seen basic cell phones, pagers, MP3 players, electronic organizers, blackberries, all hanging from people's belt clips, oftentimes multiple devices to serve multiple functions. Now, Apple's iPhone (just as one example) can perform all of these functions from a single device smaller than a typical cell phone was just 5 years ago! I see the exact same issue with launching another "new" device to handle only e-newspaper media. People have enough stuff to load in their bag on their way out the door every morning. If the argument is that a laptop is an inconvenient user interface for scrolling through a paper, then perhaps a new software application could be developed (and sold by the major newspapers for $$) to enhance the reader's experience?? I'm confident that someone will eventually figure out a sustainable solution. In the meantime, I think I'll make do with just my laptop for reading the paper...