Pocket Lint broke the news today that Amazon are buying Amazon Kindle ads on Google UK.

It’s likely that this might just be to prevent Sony from stealing potential Kindle customers -

 Sony and Waterstones tend to buy ads on Google UK for kindle related searches (not cricket, is it).

Amazon might have decided to redirect these people to Amazon.co.uk and then to the US Kindle product page instead.

However, there’s a slight chance there’s more to it.

Amazon Kindle UK Signs

Take a look at the signs (I know its video overkill – however its the only alternative to putting in 10 pictures) –

So, we have -

1. Daily Mail added to the Kindle Store where it joins 8 other European newspapers. 
2. Amazon buying google ads on google.co.uk that almost seem to be saying kindle uk is available already. 
3. iFixit’s tear-down revealing that there are markings for a SIM card slot.  
4. End of June news that Kindle Germany hit a snag.
5. Early July articles heralding Borders and its 189 pound Elonix ereader.
6. Amazon has been hiring globalization experts and CDMA/WiFi experts and people with titles that have variations of Global and International in them since middle of last year.

And 4 out of the 6 signs have come up in the last 2 weeks.

The motivation for a quick Amazon Kindle UK Release ?

At the moment in the UK you have -

1. Early July entry of Borders with its eReader. 
2. Sony Reader.
3. Smaller companies’ ereaders like Cool-er.

Soon to be joined by (at beginning of 2010) -

1. Perhaps an Apple MediaPad. Latest news on that front is Apple has been patenting tech to simulate book page turns -
   

   a recent patent application … includes a multitouch e-book technology … describes a method to “simulate a finger turning the page in an actual paper-bound book.” The invention also makes it possible to “whisk through” a large chunk of pages

2. Definitely a Plastic Logic eReader that’ll benefit from the ‘made in Cambridge’ halo.  

It’s almost imperative for Amazon to release Kindle in the UK soon.

Now we’re seeing a bunch of signs all clustered together. My guess is Amazon announces Kindle UK in the new month or two.

Looking for a kindle law book? You’re in luck! Quick on the heels of the addition of Kindle Sheet Music, we have Practicing Law Institute announce that they are releasing 67 kindle law books for the Kindle 2 and Kindle DX (courtesy UW Law Libary Blog) -

covering such areas as business, corporate and securities law, banking and commercial law, intellectual property law, estate and tax planning law, real estate law, insurance law, elder law, and litigation.By year-end, the line will expand to over 100 titles … The suggested retail price point will be $250.

Here’s a kindle for lawyers video to help you see the benefits (particularly the readability of the screen) –

PLI also disclose a rather unclear reason for giving Kindle exclusivity -

PLI has chosen an exclusive association with Kindle because of Kindle’s close fit with PLI’s reach to over 200,000 practicing attorneys.

Its worth nothing that the discount for kindle law books is just 20% – you can take a look at the available kindle law book range in the kindle store. This $275 copy of Art Law, for example, is only discounted from $275 to $220.

Kindle Law Books Arrive

PLI, in their press release, mention there will be 6 free Kindles given to purchasers of PLI treatises. However, the PLI website does not have details yet.

Kindle for Lawyers – Which Kindle is best for Lawyers?

Depends on whether you’re expensing it or not.

1. The Kindle DX is $489, has a larger screen (2.5 times the size), and has PDF support. It also has landscape mode. It is however not as portable as the Kindle 2. Read my full kindle dx review for details. 
2. The Kindle 2 is $299, much more portable and convenient. However, the smaller screen might be an issue if you would much rather read off a screen that’s closer to A4 size. The Kindle 2 Review for more details.

Both come with a 30 day return period. The Wisconsin Law Journal has an article on 5 ways lawyers can use a Kindle.

A more work-oriented list of justifications for kindle for lawyers -

1. Its an eInk screen – easy on the eyes, readable in sunlight, changeable font sizes. Much better than computer screens.
2. Portable Legal Library – Keep a library of kindle law documents on your Kindle for easy access anytime.
3. Save Time – Search through all your law books on the kindle. No time wasted waiting for print-outs to arrive.
4. Fredom from Paper - No more having to print out documents all the time, carry them around.
5. You can add in notes to the case file itself (not for PDFs on Kindle DX). You can do this for converted PDFs on the Kindle 2.
6. Convenience - just carry law books and documents on your kindle. 
7. Use the Kindle to transfer files from work to home and vica versa.
8. Saves on paper so its environment friendly.
9. Its much lighter than law books so its good for your wrists and arms.  
10. Notes you make in documents, clippings from documents, and highlighted items are accessible online. Again, not for PDFs on the Kindle DX. 
11. Great for travelling and commuting – flights, subway rides, etc.

Disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer. None of this advice is meant to be legal advice.

The Kindle 2 and Kindle DX are great devices that remove the technical hassles and just work.

The PLI kindle law book range adds to the 4,500 kindle law books already available in the Kindle Store and makes the Kindle a good device for lawyers.

What goes well with a cheap Kindle 2? Free Kindle Books of course. 

1. My Soul To Lose by Rachel Vincent. #5 in the bestsellers list.  
2. Worst Enemies, Best Friends by Annie Bryant (in the kindle top 50).  
   

   Free Book for cheaper kindle

3. Three Free Romance Novels in PDF Format from eHarlequin –  The Last Cowboy, Family Of Her Own, and The Horsemans Son. Courtesy Kelly at MobileRead.
4. Chris Anderson is finally practicing what he preaches and offering a free audiobook of his new book Free: the Future of a Radical Price. You can also read it online at Scribd. No downloads though.

We are 9 days into July and we already have 6 free book offers in the Kindle Store, a $1 kindle book offer, a buy one get one free offer plus free books from various other sources. Not bad at all.

Economist, New Additions in the Kindle Store

1. The Economist is the latest addition and now #1 amongst kindle magazines (and for some strange reason amongst newspapers too). It is $10.49 a month.
2. The Minneapolis Star Tribune was also added to the Kindle Store.
3. For some strange reason Amazon is letting the Green Recovery book sell a solitary chapter as a free book. This is just wrong.
4. 8 books over $9.99 in the Top 100, although two are at $11.99 .

Something about Amazon you might not know: The Amazon Vine Program (no not wine, Vine) that selects amazon reviewers based on how well they are trusted and then they get free copies of products and are asked to review them. 

Would make sense to incorporate something like this for Kindle Books, especially independent author books.

There’s an exciting, new, relevant to Kindle software out called DoubleTwist. It adds something sorely missed so far - a Kindle, PC sync software that makes using the Kindle easier.

Note: It does not support documents, only photos and music.

1. DoubleTwist lets you sync music and photos across the Kindle and your PC. 
2. Its got a great, easy to use interface (see video below). 
3. It recognizes your kindle as long as its plugged in. 
4. It recognizes your photo and music folders. Plus you can add more.
5. You can pick exactly which folders you want to sync.  

Sync Kindle, PC Music and Photos

Here’s a video showing how simple it is –

And another video showing Kindle and PC post sync (viewable conveniently from within DoubleTwist) –

I love the interface and it works on both PC (XP, Vista) and Mac. 

You do need to run the software on your PC or Mac. However, DoubleTwist supports over 100 devices including -

1. iPhone and iPod 
2. Amazon Kindle 
3. Blackberry
4. G1 (the android phone)
5. Nokia N and E series.  

Two Interesting SideNotes

1. DVD Jon is the main programmer and a founder – The same DVD Jon who broke the DVD DRM. 
2. Michael Ovitz is one of the financers – He’s more famous for negotiating David Letterman’s move from NBC to CBS and his Disney severance package of $38 million cash and $100 million or so stock.

Future Kindle Possibilities?

There is no support to sync documents at the moment. However, that might get added on request so do request kindle document support at the doubletwist forums.

In addition, there is the rather interesting fact that the way DoubleTwist interacts with a device is declared in an external XML file called a ‘device declaration’. It allows you to specify the folders to which media are synced, folders to search when browsing media and so forth.

Wonder whether this would make it possible to extend DoubleTwist to documents?

It’s interesting to review the different rationale journalists, analysts and bloggers are supplying for the sub $300 Kindle.

$300 Kindle Rationale 1: Economies of Scale

Proponent: Amazon.
Agree: Think Equity Analyst Edward Weller, Me (my second favorite rationale).
Details: Amazon just straight out said they’re producing more kindles and benefiting from economies of scale (Andrew Herdener) -

passing on savings to consumers from the increasing volume of Kindle sales and the decreasing costs to manufacture the digital reading device.

Review: One of the top two explanations.

$300 Kindle 2 Rationale 2: Prime View’s Acquisition of E-Ink

Proponent: Goldman Sachs analyst James Mitchell.
Details: Mr. Mitchell writes -

we assume that this cut similarly flows from supplier scale in manufacturing key components, such as the E Ink screen; Amazon’s Kindle assembler, Prime View International, acquired the manufacturer of Kindle electrophoretic screens, E Ink Corporation, for $215 million in June 2009, which may have aligned Amazon’s and Prime View’s interests in favor of price cuts to drive volume.

Bonus Snippet: We estimate Amazon has sold around 1.5 million Kindles to date.

Review: Doesn’t make much sense as manufacturing and materials cost $185 and cutting that to $120 in 5 months seems near impossible.

$300 Kindle Rationale 3 – Ward off competitors

Proponent: Alexandria Sage at Reuters, lots of others.
Details: Calls it the latest salvo in the war for digital readers -

The price cut comes amid a budding digital book battle where rivals like Amazon, Sony Corp and a host
of smaller companies are anxious to get in on the ground floor of what some say is the future of reading.

Review: Somewhat plausible. The thing is that the Kindle was the clear-cut choice even before the price-cut.

$300 Kindle Rationale 4 – Kindle DX cannibalizing Kindle 2 sales, Declining Kindle 2 Sales.

Proponent: Me, a few others. 
Details: There are two main factors at play here -

1. Its confusing choosing between Kindle 2 and Kindle DX. If you put aside sticker shock and consider it from the perspective of someone who has a $489 gift card - its a really hard choice to make.  
2. The recession means the difference between $299 and $359 seems like $100 or more.

At the new price point the Kindle 2 just becomes a clear, clear choice.

Review: My favorite explanation. One of the top two along with economies of scale.

$300 Kindle Rationale 5 – Amazon is getting support from Book Publishers

Proponent: Jeff Lindsey of Sanford Bernstein (courtesy MarketWatch).
Details: Thinks Amazon is getting more support from publishers. He writes -

“We think that previously, Amazon was heavily subsidizing the price of books and making up for it with a higher price on the hardware,” Lindsay said. “This indicates that publishers are beginning to transition to an electronic publishing model, which is lower revenue but higher margins.”

Review: We wish.

$300 Kindle – My Thoughts

Lets look at this progression for why so many people have so many different theories about the kindle price cut -

1. iSuppli made the grand mistake of listing the ‘direct material cost of the Kindle 2′ at $176.83, and manufacturing and materials cost at $185.49. 
2. They do note that this excludes - 
   

   the cost of intellectual property, royalties and licensing fees, software, software loading and test, shipping, logistics, marketing and other channel costs

3. Every single journalist (perhaps they don’t read the full article) uses the $185.49 price as what it costs Amazon to get a Kindle 2 to a customer.
4. They therefore wrongly assume that Amazon had a $170 buffer to play around with and that the $60 price-cut leaves Amazon with a $110 cushion.

Every Kindle 2 is invaluable to Amazon once it reaches a customers’ hands. There is no way they would be leaving a $110 cushion.

The real reason for the $300 kindle? My money is on a mix of the Kindle DX cannibalization effect and economies of scale.

What do you think is the motivation behind the sub $300 kindle?

Before we review the kindle 2 and kindle dx’s place in Amazon’s long-term strategy, let’s take a look at some recent Amazon developments -

1. Amazon expanded its in-house Pinzon Line to include cookware, tableware, etc. by Seattle Super-Chef Tom Douglas. They also have in-house brands for outdoor furniture (Strathwood), tools (Denali) and more.
2. As Big Companies talk up Cloud Computing, Amazon is quietly delivering . JMP analyst Patrick Walravens writes -
   

   We found that Amazon Web Services offers the most competitive pricing on a dollar per virtual machine basis. Large companies have noticed and are using its Web Services cloud computing platform to host their public websites

3. Maggie Savarino at Seattle Weekly notes that Amazon will partner with Napa’s New Vine Logistics and start selling wine to 44 states. She adds -
   

   If Amazon becomes a wine retailer, the company will have tremendous clout with wholesalers, able to buy wine at a discount in a quantity that makes the word “bulk” seem highly inadequate. Their selection will be unrivaled.

   In short, the plight of the independent bookseller is about to become the plight of the independent wine retailer.

Makes you wonder if Amazon is selling everything but the kitchen sink?

Actually, Amazon does sell kitchen sinks.

Everything But The .. wait a minute

Not only is Amazon selling everything, it’s doing a stellar job -

1. Henry Blodget points out that Amazon is growing much faster than ECommerce and Retail Sales are (one commenter even thinks this is due to the Kindle).
2. Beacon Assets Managers agree with Cowen & Co’s Jim Friedland that Amazon is a next generation WalMart, except it performs better.

Basically, Amazon is expanding faster than the Universe (to be precise the retail universe).

How do Kindle 2 and Kindle DX come into the picture? First, let’s look at Amazon’s Google Tax.

Search Google.com for ‘kindle’ and you find -

1. Ads by Sony and BeBook.
2. 3 links and 1 photo in the ‘News for kindle’ links before the Amazon Kindle pages.
3. 2 separate video results above the fold.
4. 4 image results above the fold.

In fact, there are 50+ different links on that SERP page of which only 2 go directly to Amazon. Its the same or worse for every product Amazon sells.

Online, Amazon has to pay a tax of sorts to Google - 

1. Amazon often has to pay for traffic and that takes away from customers’ savings and Amazon’s profits.
2. It often loses traffic to competitors or other sites.  
3. Add on the fact that Google is jumping into ebooks itself and has Google Books and Froogle.
4. Further add on Google’s pattern of attacking every big tech company it can find (today’s launch of the Google Chrome OS for example).

In mobile, and with Kindle, there is no Google Tax.

Any mobile device is new to the point that there is no Google Tax yet. The Kindle is even better as not only is it tax-free it can be kept google free.

Amazon’s strategy to ensure it becomes the New WalMart is to create tax-free channels on every mobile device -

1. Amazon recently indicated that the Amazon API isn’t supposed to be used in mobile or handheld devices without Amazon’s permission. 
2. The policy clearly indicates Amazon is very concerned about a 3rd party developer grabbing a large chunk of Amazon sales via the iPhone (or worse via the Kindle).
3. Kindle for iPhone users are redirected to the iPhone browser to make purchases (thereby bypassing Apple’s 30% tax).

Basically, Amazon realizes that it can’t serve customers (or itself) if it’s paying all sorts of ridiculous taxes – 30% to Apple, x% to Google, and so forth.

1. Amazon intends to be the New WalMart, and make 10 cents on every online and mobile dollar.
2. It has no desire to share half of that with Google or 30% of it with Apple.

Just as Google is trying to free itself of the huge shadow of Windows and Internet Explorer, Amazon is trying to free itself of the huge shadow of Google Search. 

Mobile devices in general, and the Kindle and the Kindle DX in particular, are Amazon’s solution to the Google Tax.

The Official Kindle Blog announced the addition of Kindle Sheet Music to the Kindle Store (as did a Press Release from Novato Music Press, the sheet music company) -

Press Release: FreeHand Systems announces that its Novato Music Press catalog, consisting of over 20,000 classical, traditional and American music titles, is now available for Amazon Kindle.

Kindle Blog: Major composers such as J. S. Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven are well-represented, but the collection also contains traditional songs and works from popular songwriters like Stephen Foster and George M. Cohan, along with rare, but important works by minor composers, including Bredon Hill by George Butterworth, and Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha.

The sheet music will obviously be better suited to the Kindle DX (all copies of Sheet Music have an Optimized for Kindle DX tag). 

However, lets review how the Kindle 2 handles sheet music, especially now that its just $299 -

1. The default size was on the small side. My eyesight is pretty good and it was still a bit uncomfortable.
2. You can zoom into any page as every page is an image. It then becomes quite comfortable to read. 
3. As far as actual use, if your eyesight is not very good, the delay between flipping pages and the fact that you have to zoom in to get a larger size makes the Kindle 2 quite unsuited for sheet music. Just my opinion.
4. $2.39 for the 12 pages of sheet music in the Barber of Seville seems steep.
5. The Kindle DX with its larger screen would be much better suited for sheet music. Plus you get landscape mode for an even bigger font size.
6. Could not figure out whether changing font size had any impact. As every page is an image it seems the only way to increase the size is by zooming in.
7. Flipping pages takes .5 second or so. Definitely less than a second.

You can also look at some Kindle Sheet Music images on the Kindle Photo page that show what the default and zoomed in sizes look like when compared with print in a trade paperback.

The review of the kindle 2 for using sheet music would be -

1. B grade and usable if you have good eyesight.
2. Unusable otherwise. Its just not possible to flip the page (which takes .5 second or so) and also zoom the page to larger size while maintaining flow.

We now have a $299 Kindle – Amazon has cut the Kindle 2 price to $299. The Kindle DX is still $489 so the $299 kindle 2 seems to be economies of scale rather than marketing strategy.

Kindle $299

Great Move by Amazon!

$299 Kindle – What does it mean?

1. Amazon is beginning to achieve economies of scale. A $60 price cut is pretty impressive.
2. Amazon is passing on savings to the customer.  
3. Kindle 2 at $299 becomes very compelling for anyone on the fence.

Kindle 2 at $299 – Will Kindle DX see a price cut?

1. It might – It’s not a given though because the Kindle DX obviously hasn’t seen the economies of scale that Kindle 2 has. 
2. If we assume the same 5-6 month delay before a price-cut that both Kindle 1 and Kindle 2 saw, that would mean a Kindle DX price-cut in October.

Kindle at $299 – Clear #1 Choice

Even before the price-cut the Kindle 2 was the best eReader on the market. The $299 Kindle 2 just blows the competition out of the water.

If you’re a new eReader trying to take on Kindle and Sony Reader, suddenly your $250 price-point looks a lot less appealing.

The $299 Kindle will greatly ramp up sales

Every hundred figure is a psychological barrier. A Lot of people were fixated on how there ought to be a sub $300 price and now they’ve got it.

Also, a $299 Kindle 2 compares better with a lot of other price points -

1. $399 netbooks. 
2. $99 to $689 cellphones.
3. $299 cameras.

What’s behind the $299 Kindle?

The $99 iPhone and differentiating from the Kindle DX – that’s my gut feeling.

You suddenly see people looking at lowered prices of the iPhone and in this economic climate it makes everyone just that much more inclined to buy something that seems a bit cheaper than before.

As far as the Kindle DX – the price difference was something of an impediment – it made the value proposition too close. The $299 Kindle 2 becomes a clear #1 choice now (even if the dx weren’t out of stock).

What if you just bought a $359 Kindle 2?

If it was in the last 30 days you can get a $60 refund by calling up Kindle Customer service -

6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Pacific Time, seven days a week. You can also reach us by calling one of these numbers: Inside the United States: 1-866-321-8851; Outside the United States: 1-206-266-0927.

Or go to this page and click the ‘Contact Us’ button to have them call you back.

Closing Thoughts – $299 Kindle 2

Any way you look at it, a lower priced kindle is a boon for reading, ebooks, and Amazon. The new $299 kindle price will make it accessible to a lot more people and will further accelerate the spread of ebooks.

Kudos to Amazon for a $299 kindle 2 price less than 5 months after its release.

There are now 244 dx reviews from actual owners at Amazon. To get a better picture of how owners like their Kindle DX, I went through every dx review and this post is the result.

If you prefer, You can look at a full kindle dx review. Else, lets proceed -

DX Review – Number of DX Reviews per Day

Gives a good idea of what DX supply looks like, given that supply is currently the constricting factor -

DX Review Rate - DX Reviews per Day

You’ll see that there are two distinct peaks and one trough -

1. Peak when the DX first came out.
2. Peak around July 4th. This could just be a lot of people finding time during the long weekend to review the dx.
3. The trough stretches throughout – June 25th is when dx delays shot up to 4-6 weeks. 

Graph is courtesy NCES Graph Utility.

DX Review – Ratings from Owners

We’d covered dx review statistics before and had found this distribution amongst the first 100 legitimate dx reviews -

1. 5 star DX review: 48 owners.
2. 4 star DX review: 27 owners.
3. 3 star DX review: 18 owners.
4. 2 star Review: 3 owners.
5. 1 star Review: 4 owners.

That translates to a 4.12 stars average on 100 reviews.

The current distribution, among the first 241 legitimate dx reviews, comes out to be -

1. 5 star dx review: 122.
2. 4 star review: 63.
3. 3 star dx reviews: 38. 
4. 2 star dx reviews: 8.
5. 1 star dx review: 13.

Across 244 dx reviews, the average rating is 4.1188. That’s almost exactly the rating after the 100th dx review.

DX Review Insights

1. The pace of people adding dx reviews is 244 over 26 days, which equates to 9.4 dx reviews per day.
2. As a comparison, the Kindle 2 has 4,678 reviews over 133 days. That’s 35.2 reviews per day. Almost 4 times the rate of the dx.
3. Assuming 1 out of 100 dx owners adds a review, that’s 940 dx kindles being shipped out per day.
4. Perhaps the ratio is more, perhaps less.

An average rating of 4.2 stars out of 5 is pretty favorable (and it’s been around that mark consistently). After reviewing every legitimate dx review, it seems that supply problems are really holding back the dx.

The Kindle DX or Plastic Logic’s eReader might be the savior of newspapers – However, there might not be much left to save. Let’s look at the rapidly accelerating demise of newspapers -

Advertising Sales are falling precipitously

Newsosaur (excellent blog) points out that advertising sales fell by an unprecedented 28.3% in 2009’s first 3 months. Furthermore -

1. Online sales fell 13.4%. 
2. Classifieds fell 42.3%. 
3. Employment Classified Advertising fell 67.4%.
4. Newspapers Sales have been falling since April 2006, and the rate is accelerating.

Newspapers themselves are dying

Preethi Dumpala at Silicon Alley Investor has an excellent article up titled ‘The Year the Newspaper Died’ that points out that in 2009 we already have -

1. 105 newspapers shuttered.
2. 10,000 newspaper jobs lost.
3. 23 of the top 25 newspapers’ circulation declined 7% to 20% (Interestingly, WSJ saw an increase).

 For a really in-depth view, take a look at paper cuts, a site that shows you -

1. All newspaper lay-offs in google maps.
2. All newspapers that have closed (also in google maps).
3. Newspapers that have switched to online versions (just 8 so far)
4. News, rumors and 2007 and 2008 maps.

They actually list 10,293+ jobs lost in the first 6 months of 2009.

Enter Kindle DX, Plastic Logic eReader, iPhone

An ereader like the Kindle DX does a few important things -

1. It functions as a channel where people are used to paying for content.  
2. It allows newspapers to solve the ‘immediacy of news’ problem by offering news as it happens.  
3. It greatly reduces distribution costs.

The newspaper moguls complaining about having to give Amazon 70% ought to just pick another device, and it’d help if they stopped giving away their content for free online and on the iPhone.

Newspapers still have the content and the brand

Online, Content is King. Reputation is nearly as important. Newspapers have heaps of both.

Take a look at Google itself – all their ads surround the content sites. People wouldn’t visit if the sites that provide content weren’t there. Neither would people visit as much if they didn’t believe the whole ‘Do No Evil’ branding.

Channels like the Internet, the Kindle, iPhones, and cellphones give newspapers the ability to morph into entities that provide better news. They have the opportunity to -

1. Provide better news. 
2. Provide better news instantaneously. 
3. Make prices lower for customers. 
4. Cut costs by doing things more efficiently and with less people.
5. Stop running ads that manipulate customers.
6. Focus on providing information on products their customers are already interested in.

Instead, newspapers are focusing on profits, the unfulfilled promise of online advertising, and forgetting customers.

Newspapers need to forget Advertising

Advertising to support newspaper costs isn’t a great idea. The Internet is creating an environment where customers are no longer sheep.

Advertising and manipulation doesn’t really work with informed customers. Read Jakob Nielsen’s post on Banner Blindness which points out that the only way to get Internet users to click on ads is to pretend the ads are content -

Users almost never look at anything that looks like an advertisement, whether or not it’s actually an ad.

…. we discovered a fourth approach that breaks one of publishing’s main ethical principles by making the ad look like content:

• The more an ad looks like a native site component, the more users will look at it.
• Not only should the ad look like the site’s other design elements, it should appear to be part of the specific page section in which it’s displayed.

Not even the most popular sites like YouTube and Facebook are being able to get online ads to work. Do newspapers really think they can succeed where the best online companies are failing?

Is there a solution? Is the Kindle DX part of it?

1. For the newspaper industry to support its current structure and size – No.
2. For a more efficient newspapers industry that stops buying the mantra of ‘give it away for free, and make money off of ads’ – Yes.

Newspapers need to do a few things at the same time -

1. Minimize the cost of producing and distributing quality content, without reducing the quality.  
2. Charge at least as much as it costs to create the news.
3. Put their customers first.
4. Treat everything except the news product as an enabler, and not as some critical part of their DNA they cannot live without.

The Kindle DX or PL eReader or any other device or technology can’t help newspapers as long as they keep devaluing their own worth and putting customers last.