If I were a publisher I would be investing some serious time in looking at things like the NY Times Reader application and how I could combine it with something like iTunes or Windows Media Player. I had a long chat with Ben about this today that went like this:

• Steve: have you checked out the NY Times Reader Ben?
• Ben: Not really. What's cool about it?
• Steve: Well I read a an article on the web site of the NY Times last week and then read it using their Reader program that is in beta. The experience in the application was fantastic.
• Ben: why so?
• Steve: well it was pretty close to reading a paper paper in term of clarity, fonts, and just overall fidelity compared to the real thing. The really nice part though is the fact that you get a paper like experience with the benefits of technology - specifically search.
• Ben: sounds cool. What do you think about this in terms of the future of publishing
• Steve: well I subscribe to Arena on a yearly basis and pay about £30 for the privilege. I wouldn't drop that subscription as I still like the fact I can take the paper with me anywhere, it doesn't run out of power and it's well, just nice to read the paper format. BUT, if Arena asked me if I'd pay an extra £5 per year to get it early via an application like Reader I would snap it up. What's more, I could then recycle my paper copies when I finished with them safe in the knowledge that I would always have the electronic copy should I want to go back to an article (which I often do). Even better, with search I remove the problem of trying to remember which issue an article on say James Bond was in. I just open the app and search my back catalogue. Kind of like iTunes for magazines. Would I buy that for a premium over the paper version? Absolutely no question - yes I would.
• Ben: do you think others would?
• Steve: would you?
• Ben: yeah, for about 5 different journals I read
• Steve: I think we just found a business.

I have no doubt others are thinking about but iTunes for magazines - yep, I want that. Indexed versions of The Sunday Times, Arena, Wired and more all in one place with a sharing system that allows me to syndicate to my friends maybe for a fee or even a referral fee to me?

Off to noodle on it but in the meantime, download the NY Times Reader application and check it out for yourself. Or compare my web experience with my Reader experience.

Get the NY Times Reader (Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista)