News Readers for New York Times, Forbes, and Seattle P-I

Microsoft has announced NewsReaders for Forbes magazine, Hearst Corp's Seattle Post Intelligencer, Associated Newspapers, in addition to the previously available New York Times reader.

The Hearst Corporation's Seattle Post Intelligencer has a reader available for download today. They said

"The P-I Reader allows users, such as business travelers or commuters, to synchronize their laptops before getting on an airplane or train and have available the latest content to read when it is most convenient. Up to six days of content can also be archived and read. The text and photos in the P-I Reader are displayed in a format to fit the size and layout of any computer screen and readers can customize the display according to personal preferences, such as font and window size, and move quickly through the pages, without scrolling. A user can navigate through the entire paper using just two arrow keys on the keyboard.

Robert Scoble asks "Why do a reader only for one publication?"  And, Mathew Ingram asks "Why on earth would anyone download multiple pieces of software — all of which are based on the same rendering engine from Microsoft — to read different newspapers? It makes no sense."

It's about business, not technology

Newspapers and magazines have very powerful brands. Part of that brand is the look and feel or presentation of the information. The layout, the font, the headlines, and the advertising are all part of the reading experience. The newspapers and magazines want to replicate the news reading experience on line. Sorry Robert, but you can't do that with an RSS reader.

These News Readers will download the whole newspaper or magazine to your laptop or PDA within a couple minutes. Then you can read it at your leisure on the plane, bus, taxi, or where ever you are. No need for an Internet connection, and no need to scroll through hundreds of individual RSS feeds.

Most people don't subscribe to multiple newspapers, so having a specific reader for your newspaper is not a problem. It is a feature. They want that familiar look and feel.

I will continue to use the RSS reader built into Microsoft Outlook for my news feeds because I like lots of very focused news items from many sources.

But, I completely understand why newspaper readers would like a news reader that downloads the whole newspaper and presents it with the same look and feel. And, it certainly makes business sense to the newspapers and magazines. It extends their brand, and advertising, to the on-line world in a unique way.

Another reminder that the business of software is about business...not technology.

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Comments

[Abraham Sultan]

Hi Don,

I must say that I normally agree with your views 99% of the time but this time I must part with Robert and the others.

The fact that this is not about technology but instead about business makes perfect sense to me but by no means does that warrant not being able to have a dashboard interface where you choose which paper you want to read and then it would forward you to the appropriate paper with their own individual looks and layouts.

RSS readers are powerful because they allow you to concentrate a plethora of sources in a single place. In fact the way many users prefer to read the feeds is by clicking on the feed and opening it in the original source (similar to how RSSOwl and many others work).

So to put it your way: I think it would have been a better business for everybody to have a single reader.

Abe

[DonDodge]

Abraham, Thanks for your comment. Hey, even my wife doesn't agree with me 99% of the time. I am often wrong...just ask her...she will tell you.

The News Reader thing is all about business partnerships. Microsoft would never have released such a narrowly focused, single purpose product.

Put yourself in the shoes of the New York Times. They want to participate in the online world, keep their readers, gain new ones, and most of all build an online revenue stream from advertising.

Does an RSS feed do this? No, they needed something new, and they partnered with Microsoft to do it.

Hey, I am with you. I will continue to use an RSS reader. But, I understand the business logic behind the New York Times News Reader.

[Ola]

It shouldn't be hard to create one product with a new protocol that specifies a list of newspapers that have signed up with Microsoft and then downloads the appropriate newspaper for the user when the user asks. It doesn't even have to be open; it can be proprietary. At least, let people eat their cake and have it.

[Juha]

It depends on how you look at it, but it could be said that there's only one version of the program: the .NET 3.0 Framework/WinFX.

On top of that, you run the Reader front-ends that are tailored for the different publications and branded accordingly.

[Tim Howell]

Don, at the time when these readers were released, it was stated Microsoft was going to release a "Publisher Starter Kit." Do you know what happened to that? Thanks.