Should the New York Times "Stop the Presses" And Distribute Kindle E-Readers?

All the news that's fit to be Kindled? N. Carlson from Silicon Alley Insider, has come up with some mathematical guesstimates and figured that The New York Times might survive the decade by actually 'stopping the presses'.. If the Times simply issued free Kindles to every subscriber rather than print the newspaper, it could save nearly half of its operating budget.

Shocked? You shouldn't be. Mr. Hirschorn's piece in The Atlantic foresees the Times closing it doors this year. New York magazine also had a recent article about the "renegade cybergeeks" who could 'save the paper'. Here's the breakdown: According to the New York Times' financials, production costs such as raw materials and wages/benefits total around $844 million annually. Carlson also revealed that the newsroom expenses amount to about two hundred million annually. Therefore it roughly costs $644 million to print and distribute the 'paper' newspaper.

Now, since the Times has some 830,000 subscribers, and Kindle e-book reader costs $359 (as of Feb this year), handing out a free Kindle to every subscriber would cost only cost, say $298 million. If the Times would 'stop the presses', and not distribute any papers, and have all its subscribers read the paper via the Kindle, it could theoretically save $346 million.

However Silicon Alley has missed a point or two. Not all readers of the paper are subscribers. So only some of that grand total of $844 million would go towards supplying the paper for them. If the Times went completely paper-free, it stands to lose some of the customers that stop at the neighborhood paper stand to get their copy.

Naturally going all electronic delivery would encourage some customers to get their free Kindle so they could continue to read the paper, but not all of them. Some customers would be lost. The decision of going to an all electronic delivery would have many 'green' points that can be used to sell the idea to the public as well. No more producing ink, killing trees, powering the physical presses, nor the burning of gas for the delivery trucks. This could very well position the Times as a 'green' and community conscious company.

Personally , I would miss the paper newspapers. There's a nostalgic feeling I get turning and folding the pages, and smelling the print on the paper. Though, one thing I won't miss is having to wash the print off my hands after reading the Times. "I don't know if the newspaper is dead, but I will say, "Long Live the Enewspaper."