Last week, paidContent reported that a Scottish newspaper, The Herald, was having trouble getting its product in the Kindle Store. Specifically, the newspaper said that Amazon had told it it was stopping adding new newspapers to the Kindle Store.
Amazon, at the time, said: “That’s not true — we are accepting newspapers on Kindle. However, we are not always able to immediately launch every publisher who contacts us using our more heavyweight integration method.” Amazon then suggested building an Android app instead, which would only be usable on the Kindle Fire and not the e-ink Kindles.
The Herald now reports a reversal:
You may have seen our previous notice on this page where we said that Amazon had told us they were putting on hold the launch of any further newspaper publications on the Kindle. We’re delighted to say though that they have now agreed to get The Herald edition up and running as soon as they can.
As Robert Andrews writes for paidContent, no word on how many other newspapers may be stuck in the same situation.
On one hand, Amazon’s advice isn’t terrible — an Android app is something many newspapers should probably be investing in, and it would have value beyond the Kindle universe. But realistically, an Android app makes it very hard to pull off a digital subscription strategy, whereas the Kindle editions of newspapers are generally at higher price points than what they can afford to charge elsewhere — and no matter how big a hit the Kindle Fire has been, it’s still a smaller market than all the e-ink Kindles combined.