BulletProofBlog the blog on crisis communications

Perhaps all the obituaries for the newspaper are just a bit premature. A new way to get newspapers into the hands of 21st century readers may be hiding in plain sight.

Most of the buzz about the Amazon Kindle and other so-called "e-readers" has had to do with downloading books. The just released second generation Kindle can hold more than a thousand of them. Most cost about ten bucks, and you can download them directly to the device in about a minute using a built-in wireless connection. No computer required.

Two decades ago, news industry futurists were eagerly promoting the concept of a device that would download a daily newspaper overnight and have it ready to read on a portable computer-like screen over breakfast in the morning. In those days, the technology required to manufacture affordable flat panel screens didn' t exist. High speed wireless connections didn' t exist. Neither did long-life batteries. The electronic newspaper was an exciting idea, but one that was impossible to realize with the technology that was available.

Meanwhile, much of the recent discussion has been about whether the Web will prove to be the salvation of the newspaper business or its eventual undoing. But, as anyone who has spent time playing around with the Kindle will tell you, the Web may be only part of the story. While most people in the news business weren' t looking, the electronic newspaper envisioned 20 years ago was invented and offered for sale. The new Kindle even looks a lot like that magical device of 20 years ago - except it' s real, and you can buy it for a few hundred bucks and the click of a mouse.

Along with all those books, you can subscribe to over 30 newspapers in the U.S. and overseas. They are delivered wirelessly overnight and are ready for reading the next morning. Just as e-readers won' t replace printed books any time soon, don' t look for them to suddenly wipe out printed newspapers. But at a time when major dailies like the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Christian Science Monitor are throwing in the towel on newsprint and shifting to Web-only distribution, it is worth keeping an eye on how newspaper distribution to e-readers develops.