At last, the Amazon Kindle arrived today. The little Apple’ish looking fellow was the object of a thorough examination at the office this morning and the verdict was clear: it’s quite cool. Both the design, the snappiness of page turning, the reading aloud and the calm crystal clear display make altogether a very good user experience. However, this conclusion arrived after a mere 10 minutes playing around, so we’ll see how the verdict turns out after extensive use for a couple of weeks.

It’s good to see the technological development getting closer to actual use and widespread recognition. I’ve followed the development for the last six years, and so much have happened. I’ve also had the pleasure of being involved in different innovation projects around electronic paper. Both in the media industry, around conferences and when doing keynotes. I’ve blogged about e-ink before and did a presentation around the future of the newspaper.

What’s most interesting at the moment is the attention it gets from the media industry. The newspaper business is undergoing some tough times and I think this accelerates their need for new ways of producing and distributing content. The biggest problem is that the newspapers’ business models are broken. The subscription model have played out it’s role especially among young people who get their news from the internet and would never ever consider subscribing for news. The advertising model is shrinking at incredible speed right now – both due to the credit crunch, but also because companies want what the net offers: transparency and only payment for what you get.

I have a firm suspicion that leaders of the newspaper industry are nostalgics; they long for the good o’le times when they had life long subscribers and loyal advertisers. The internet ruined that for good. And they helped it along the way by not experimenting with new business models and by not utilizing the new medium in it’s own terms.

But what’s worse is that they think the electronic paper can bring back the good times. They can simply skip all the expensive ink and costly distribution and use the e-newspaper as an ordinary newspaper. However, that would be a mistake just as grave as when tv-stations back in the 50’s broadcasted theater plays recorded with one camera and when the first companies began using the www by uploading jpg’s of their sales material. They didn’t understand the true nature of the medium they were using.

Dear media bosses, don’t think the e-ink technology is a quick fix for the crisis you’re in. If and when you are going to use it – think it thorougly through. Ask yourself: What is this new medium? What is this new platform and how does it distinguish it self from any other media? How can we explore and exploit the benefits the technology brings? What experience can we bring our audiences with the technology? How can e-ink connect us with our readers once again? How can we make money from it? And most importantly please co-develop this new potential newspaper medium together with your readers to get it right the first time.

Those are the ground questions for experimentations with any new media. I really look forward to see what the future brings for e-newspapers.

For further reading, check out:

- How to save your newspaper – Time.com

- The end of paper? – Fortune.com

- A no-paper newspaper – Newsweek.com