USA Today adds blogs and online communities to Kindle offerings

Posted by Emma Heald on April 15, 2009 at 9:16 AM

USA Today has announced that it is now making a selection of its blogs and online communities available on Amazon's e-reader, the Kindle. Subscriptions to the paper have been available since December 2008 for $11.99 a month; the newly added blogs and communities cost between $0.99 and $1.99 to download.

According to a press release, the new features include Lifeline Live, providing celebrity and entertainment news; OnDeadline, offering breaking news; Game On!, covering the latest sports news; The Oval, an online community dedicated to tracking the Obama administration; and Today in the Sky, delivering the latest news and analysis about airlines, airports and air travel.

USA Today has also created an iPhone application and indicated that it will make its content available on the Plastic Logic e-reader when it becomes available in early 2010. Plastic Logic believes that its product will be more suited than the Kindle to reading newspaper and magazine content as its screen will be significantly larger. Hearst has also announced that it will produce an e-paper device. Newspapers are eagerly looking at new ways to distribute and make money from their content, and though it is not yet clear whether e-readers will take off, projects such as the Detroit Media Partnership's intention to develop a lease plan for its papers' subscribers, will be closely watched.

Source: USA Today press release