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I was pleased to discover that The Economist is available for Kindle as of June 30th. This was the last print publication I was subscribed to, so I can now go paperless for all of my reading.

Also, as I have written before, the bare-bones nature of the Kindle reading experience is more immersive for me than magazine and web pages that have ads, quote-outs, multiple photos per page, multiple articles per page, etc. I think I will be able to read The Economist more quickly on the Kindle and in a more focused manner.

The ratings on Amazon.com for the Kindle edition of The Economist are abysmal. This is because a Kindle subscription is essentially the same price as a print subscription. No savings from the obviation of printing and mailing are being passed on to Kindle readers and this has angered many of them. But, I think that anger is somewhat misplaced.

Amazon is thought to keep 70 percent of the sales price for content on the Kindle. And, no Kindle content contains advertising as far as I can tell. So, unless it was able to negotiate a special deal, The Economist is having to pay its pound of flesh to Amazon while also losing ad revenue each time it sells a Kindle edition instead of a print edition.

Savings from not having to print and mail Kindle editions may let The Economist recoup some of the Amazon and lost advertising costs, but perhaps not all of those costs. So, keeping the Kindle edition pricing on par with the print edition may allow the magazine to maintain its margin (or at least lose less if its margin).

The real problem here is Amazon and its 70 percent charge. It’s simply too high. At some point, a viable low-cost challenger may emerge that will force Amazon to lower their rate. In the meantime, The Economist is likely doing what it must to remain profitable on the Kindle. That The Economist can keep their Kindle price high when other publications like Time and Newsweek can’t do so speaks to the strength of The Economist relative to other publications.

Foreign Affairs doesn’t even mention its Kindle edition on its website. This may be because its Kindle edition margin is lower and it doesn’t want to drive its print subscribers to a lower-margin product. My guess is that Foreign Affairs is hedging. It’s trying to keep its current print subscribers while using the Kindle to snag new readers and prevent readers from defecting to other Kindle publications. A number of publications may be in this boat.

On a final note, there is one issue that I do have with The Economist and many other publications. Subscribing to them on the Kindle doesn’t get you access to special content and archives on their websites in the same way that print subscriptions do. I don’t know if this is an Amazon issue or a publications issue, but it should be fixed. I would think Kindle readers would actually be more interested in special content and archives on the web than print subscribers.

I cancelled my Newsweek magazine subscription today. It felt a bit odd, as Newsweek has been coming to my door every week for over a decade now. It’s been a part of my routine and it’s always hard to change your routine.

When I called up Newsweek to cancel, the woman on the phone wanted to know why I was canceling.

“I’m going to subscribe to your Amazon Kindle version instead,” I said.

“Our Amazon…what…version?”

“Never mind, I just need to cancel my subscription. Thanks.”

I’ve been evaluating the Kindle version of Newsweek for a few days and am pretty impressed.

Pros

• You get it faster. I was able to get the Kindle version of the latest Newsweek on Sunday evening but my print subscription didn’t arrive until Monday afternoon.
  
• No advertising.
• No subscription cards falling out all over the place.
• No magazine clutter.
• Nothing to throw away or recycle.
• You can read article text in a variety of sizes to best suit your needs.
• Searchable bookmarks and annotations, though i doubt I will use them much.

Cons

• No Conventional Wisdom Watch. This is a huge con. With some automated reformatting, I don’t see why this can’t be there. Hope it gets added.
  
• No Perspectives. This is another huge con. Again, with some automated reformatting, I don’t see why this can’t be there. Black and white political cartoons are one of the few types of images that would look great on a Kindle and the quotes text already. Hope this gets added too.
  
• No Dignity Index. Won’t miss it that much. Actually, it’s in there.
• Can’t be easily shared with others. This isn’t a big deal for me. I can always email articles from Newsweek.com to people I think would want to see them.

Pros You’d Think Would be Cons, But Are Great

• No photos.
  
• No illustrations.
  
• No quote-outs nested among story layouts.
  
• You can only see one article at a time.
  

With the print version of Newsweek, I read very few articles all the way through and even skip over many. There are so many distractions in the print version.

On any given two-page spread you have one to three stories, one to three photos, perhaps a quote-out or two, and an ad or two all vying for your attention. It’s even easy to let your eyes wander from one column of article text to another column of text without finishing your current paragraph.

I find that just looking at one story at a time, one column at a time, is a great way to actually focus on what I’m reading. And, if I really want to see the visuals for a story, I can always visit Newsweek.com on the Kindle or with a web browser on a computer or phone to get at least some of them.

If Newsweek ever does add visuals to the Kindle version, I hope they limit them to on photo or illustration at the start of each story.

Cost is a Toss-Up

• If you buy Newsweek on newsstands for $4.95, the Kindle version at 49 cents is a steal.
  
• If you use Newsweek.com to subscribe for a year of the magazine, you pay about 75 cents an issue. So, the Kindle version is still a good deal.
• If you shop around through resellers, such as Amazon, you can get the magazine for 38 cents an issue (perhaps even less), in which case the Kindle version costs more.
• On the pro side for the Kindle version of Newsweek, you can stop your subscription with the click of a mouse at any time and you pay for each issue as it comes out rather paying upfront for a whole or partial subscription.
• On the con side, subscribing to the Kindle version of Newsweek doesn’t get you any price breaks the way that a longer-term subscription to the print version does.

Overall, I’m pretty excited about the Newsweek version for Kindle and hope the remaining bits of print content are added soon. I’m so impressed with the magazine reading experience on the Kindle that I’m getting Atlantic Monthly on it too and am hoping that Foreign Affairs will come to the Kindle in the future.

After seeing many positive reviews, I finally read The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria. It’s an excellent, thought-provoking book and I recommend it highly. It’s made me realize what a bubble I live in when it comes to following world events and trends.

After finishing the book, I picked up the latest edition of Foreign Affairs, which Zakaria was once managing editor of. What an amazing publication. I was fascinated by almost every article.

I’ll be subscribing to the print edition of Foreign Affairs. The articles are too long-form to be enjoyable on a computer screen or phone. And, sadly, they don’t offer a Kindle version. (Hint, hint, Foreign Affairs.)