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Bear Stearns Media Con: Martha, Murdoch & The Kindle

This story was written by Staci D. Kramer.


Martha Stewart, Rupert Murdoch and the Kindle from Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN). If you told me this morning I'd have been able to fit these three into the same post, I'd have asked when I started writing for The Onion. (Disclosure: I'm a Kindle user, and it's not a review unit.) Turns out Stewart discovered she could subscribe to the Wall Street Journal Kindle edition for $119"It's really effective; I don't have to carry the newspaper, don't have to get my fingers dirty"and used the Q&A period during the News Corp. CEO's appearance at Bear Stearns to ask about e-book deals and the decision not to include ads. Murdoch told the founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia: "I don't know about that Amazon deal, you caught me there." He added: "Clearly we're letting them have it too cheaply."

He ticked off the various mix of Journal subscriptions, including the $99 introductory print./online combo, and expressed, as he has before, the belief that the Journal can do better when it comes to pricing and selling subscriptions. This is one area where he thinks the New York Times (NYSE: NYT) is doing betterhe mentioned grabbing the "leading" NYT subscription exec to improve matters at Dow Jones (NYSE: NWS).

As for the Kindle, "we need to check that and we certainly need to charge you more."


By Staci D. Kramer

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