Actually Sunday newspapers compete with life in today’s world. Most major European newspapers have long given up on their Sunday editions (some because of distribution issues) as the day of rest has become the day of making up for lost time. The same is true here in the U.S. and newspapers have tried gimmicks (like product bundling) and promos (free subscription trials) to curb the steady decrease in Sunday circ, but my Sunday newspaper more resembles the local PennySaver than journalistic comfort food.

Beyond lifestyle changes, the Sunday newspaper has been doomed for a while. Never known for its news oomph (early deadlines, skeletal weekend staffs), the Sunday paper was once the home for big feature stories, special reports and a slick color magazine insert. With staff reductions, competition from other media (read: webzines) and rising costs, those showcase elements are all but disappeared. At this point, the only distinctive feature of a Sunday newspaper is its load of Free Standing Insert ads (which are themselves dwindling) and, if you live on the east coast, the lack of late sports scores.

The right move is to nuke the Sunday paper which will be a tough one to swallow but makes financial sense. Heck, I’d take all the Sunday content and bundle it into a TV show (web and on air) that reads like a local “60 Minutes” or CBS’ “Sunday Morning.” An act of heresy? Perhaps. But the times are a changin’, so it’s about time for newspapers to change with them.

At the same time, that hope is somewhat pinned to a company who has yet to publicly show its cards in the e-publishing space: Apple. Apple is rumored to be launching a tablet in 2010 that will functionally act as an e-reader but there are no details about launch time, 3G partners, publishing partners, and so on. Nonetheless, 65 percent of those surveyed say that Apple will produce and e-reader that will impact the publishing market. Amazon was second with 62% and the Plastic Logic hype machine landed 13% of those surveyed putting them in fourth place behind Sony with 25%.

And now for the news that indicates that while the e-distribution opportunity is strong, its successful implementation is (optimistically) more than a year away: More than half of publishers surveyed see a business model that includes a mix of advertising and subscription. Such a statement shows that there will be lots of experimentation in the next year with patience required from publishers to gather the answers needed to make decisions that resonate with consumers. At this point in their evolution, publishers know time is not on their side and the need for revenue has long since expired. Patience may be a luxury publishers cannot afford. Also in play are retail prices for e-reading devices and the role service providers (AT&T, etc..) will play in supporting the channel from a distribution as well as underwriting perspective. Could AT&T defray some of the device cost for folks who bought an e-reader armed with two years of 3G service (as they are doing with netbooks)?

Net net: as the e-reading market goes through a major shakeout related to devices, formats, hardware, software and business models, the timing couldn’t be more perfect. The future, at least for consumers, should hold a 2010 holiday season where e-readers (priced at about $199) are the must-have gift. Until then, early adopters can knock themselves out.

But here’s the real story for Fast Flip. According to published reports, Google has offered to share “the bulk of the revenue” from ads on Fast Flip’s pages.In addition, Google has responded to several RFPs from newspapers seeking partners in their push for premium content. Google believes its Checkout product is the perfect vehicle for paid content micropayments and subscriptions. Any reason to believe Google is using Fast Flip as a means to cast aside the image as the publisher’s enemy that ended in a still-unresolved settlement with book publishers?

Speaking of books, FF would be a service Google would no doubt offer book publishers who could allow readers to skim through sample chapters and then click a button to buy (download from Google). In order to show the publishing world it is not doing evil in its pursuit of all the world’s information, we are likely to see more services along the lines of Fast Flip aimed less at providing consumers value but more to show publishers a former enemy is truly its friend.

News stories stated that Google is looking to support a variety of reading venues, ranging from PCs to dedicated readers, implicitly inferring it will more fully support the universal e-reader standard, .epub and perhaps fully rendered .pdfs as opposed to Amazon who supports unprotected books in Mobipocket format as well as its own proprietary DRM-ed format, .azw. Amazon supports .pdfs across its Kindle family of devices, but there are some rendering issues noted for files in that Adobe format.

Google will not likely build a device, but would encourage carrier partners such as T-Mobile, who currently offer smartphones powered by Google’s Anrdoid OS, to distribute devices (smartphones, dedicated readers) that act as a showcase for Google’s ebook service. Would such a move force Apple’s hand to move more quickly on its rumored media tablet?

Google, as an ebook enabler, does put pressure on those powers in the emerging digital warehouse space such as Libre Digital, Ingram Content Group (the new name for Ingram Digital), Publishing Technologies and even Scribd. With Android, Google could open up its platform to developers who could create compelling reading experiences suited for a variety of devices and different consumer groups. Again, such a move puts pressure on Apple and its plans to offer an e-reading ecosystem.

At the end of the day, it will be publishers who will have the biggest say in who controls new digital distribution scenarios. If there’s any company publishers are more leery of than Amazon, it’s Google. Is the devil they know better they know than the devil they don’t? If this distrust remains potent enough, emerging players in the digital distribution space and perhaps Adobe, a name synonymous with publishing tools, may be best positioned to take book, newspaper and magazine publishers to the promised digital land.

*Amazon’s Kindle and Kindle 2 are gaining early signs of traction in the e-reader marketplace selling, by some estimates, around 300,000 units
*The Kindle (a single function device) is expensive at $379, lessening the likelihood it will be a widely popular consumer device
*The Kindle is pretty good for books, but is poor for reading newspapers and magazines
*Book, newspaper and magazine publishers and distributors are getting nervous about Amazon’s power, so they are working on devices of their own to compete with Amazon as well as provide better newspaper and magazine reading experience. Include Hearst and Barnes & Noble in this mix
*Apple is rumored to be making a device that may or may not be a new iPhone that facilitates online reading experiences
*The Kindle App for the iPhone is among the hottest Apps for the device
*Newspapers are closing their doors left and right (the Boston Globe appears to be next)
*Consumer magazine ad lineage is down
*Amazon is holding a press event on May 6th to announce a new device that is rumored to be better for newspapers, magazines and textbooks. (Thus making my new purchase a paperweight)
*And…The media (that is really press and bloggers) has proclaimed e-readers to be the story du jour

How will this movie end? Here’s a hint: given that consumer adoption of any of this has yet to take hold in any meaningful way, I’d say the story shows promise, but the third act is still a work in progress.

Final Edition from Matthew Roberts on Vimeo.

Welcome to one of those “only in America” scenarios where it is darned near impossible to serve the best interest of all concerned. By delaying the digital switchover the CEO of the Public Broadcasting Service states will cost public TV stations $22 million as they are forced to broadcast both digitally as well as in analog. It also puts on hold the full deployment of new digital broadcast and wireless services that will occupy the spectrum currently occupied by analog broadcast.

Perhaps there is deeper meaning to the delay. Is President Obama using this event to make a clear statement of a more populist broadcast/communications policy and the direction he intends to follow in his selection of a FCC chairman? It remains to be seen just how many of the 6.5 million analog viewers need to be upgraded by June to satisfy the administration and declare the U.S. a digital broadcast nation. As for the poor and elderly who can not afford boxes, even giving them one for free does not solve the problem. Installing it (as this skit shows) requires some technical knowledge and a steady hand.

Co-authored by Mike McGuire

Forgive me for a detour down memory lane, but I cannot help but think of my first newspaper job, 30 years ago, which was in a suburban bureau of a large metro daily. My desk backed up to one of the regional circulation managers responsible for local home delivery, trying to provide efficiency to an inherently inefficient process. It was a system solely dependent on young carriers who delivered the paper to local doorsteps by car, bike, skateboard or plain old shoe leather. These young people generally took pride in their work (often saving money for college), but when one of them called in late or sick, the harried circulation manager either had to find a replacement or hop into his car and back fill. Working in circulation is not one of publishing’s more glamorous jobs especially when the phone rang off the hook with the complaint, “Why is my paper late?”

At my second newspaper job, I became close friends with one of the circulation managers and on slow news days, I would hop in his car and go on “bundle runs” to deliver papers across the region for carriers to who called in sick or were MIA. Needless to say, I quickly became an expert in Snohomish County geography. By the same token, I also realized a carrier’s job was a tough one, rising early in the cold, dark and wet climes of the Pacific Northwest to delivery a consumer’s primary channel for local news.

I find no solace in the adage that “all good things must come to an end.” I also find no solace that our prediction from Predicts 2009: The Media Industry Looks for Equilibrium that states “by year-end 2009, at least three iconic daily newspapers located in the U.S. and Europe will cease print publication” is likely to come true.