USA Today loads more content onto Amazon Kindle

USA Today, the nation's top selling daily newspaper, is expanding its offerings on Amazon's electronic reader, the Kindle. The paper, which first jumped on the Kindle bandwagon in January, said it's putting a number of its blogs and "online communities" on the electronic reader.

USA Today's new digital move comes the same week it took a big hit to its print distribution, with the Marriott hotel chain announcing it would cut back on handing out USA Today and other papers to guests.

USA Today said its blogs will cost between 99 cents and $1.99 to download to the Kindle (a monthly subscription to the USA Today paper costs $11.99 on Kindle).

The newspaper is ramping up its digital distribution amid some bad news on the print side. Earlier this week, Marriott said it would stop dropping USA Today and other papers at guest doors as a courtesy (guests now have to ask for one). The hotel chain said that would reduce newspaper distribution by 50,000 copies daily, or 18 million per  year.

As MediaDailyNews points out, "The hotelier's move will take a noticeable bite out of USA Today's circulation. Until now, it was one of the few newspapers to maintain relatively even circ numbers, as other big titles plunged in recent years."

Amazon, for its part, is apparently seeking to cement Kindle's position as a digital distributor of newspapers and magazines. Reports indicate the company is already at work on a Kindle 3 with a larger screen more conducive to newspaper reading.

 

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