Though interested in portable e-readers, Australian publisher Fairfax, like News Corporation before it, does not want to be tied into a deal with Amazon that leaves the Kindle creator with the lion’s share of revenues.
Fairfax's director of marketing and newspaper sales, Robert Whitehead, is also the president of The Pacific Area Newspaper Publishers Association (PANPA)
The emergence of an alternative solution is certainly the best thing that can happen to the industry in its future ambition to offer “digitised versions of newspapers to readers on the run”.
In a recent article (business.theage.com.au/business/kindle-loses-glow-as-media-warm-to-alternatives-20090816-emeg.html), journalist Julian Lee reports that his group, Fairfax Media, “has rebuffed Amazon's portable e-reader…The decision by Fairfax effectively paves the way for a two-way contest between Sony and possibly Apple as the dominant reader for the digital generation”.
Julian Lee quotes Fairfax's director of marketing and newspaper sales, Robert Whitehead, who said on the topic: “I'm not sure how Amazon will go with Kindle in Australia, but we are unlikely to proceed with it. Their business model represents a very unattractive partnership deal for newspaper publishers.''
The business model for e-reading will be one of the hot topics discussed during the International e-reading conference in Paris (October 1 & 2): http://www.ifra.com/website/ifraevent.nsf/wuis/0D1845C8C4F80977C12574D600497DC1?OpenDocument&DR-CS&E& (and for last year's conference: www.ifra.com/ereading)
