Amazon's Kindle has a big job: saving the newspaper industry

It's not even 10 inches tall, it's just one-third of an inch thick, and it costs nearly $500.

But Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle DX, unveiled Wednesday, has already been assigned a huge job: reversing the fortunes of the struggling newspaper industry.

After announcing the features of the new device, which include a bigger-than-ever screen and a PDF reader, the Seattle company also revealed a partnership with Washington Post Co. and New York Times Co. that would allow consumers living outside the newspapers' delivery areas to get discounted Kindles if they agreed to subscribe to the Times, the Post or the Boston Globe on their device.

The partnership could be considered a bid by the newspapers to get readers to begin paying for content again, after seeing many of their readers migrate online and cancel their subscriptions.

"Newspapers are reaching the end of their rope," said Sarah Rotman Epps, a media analyst at Forrester Research. "The e-readers are looking like newspapers' last best hope."

The new Kindle features a 9.7-inch screen, compared with 6 inches in the previous model, and can store about 3,500 books. Amazon pays for the wireless connectivity, so buyers don't have to purchase separate phone or broadband service. But at $489, it's $130 more than the previous model and priced higher than some computers.

Still, some consumers prefer Kindle and other so-called e-readers to scanning websites on their laptops because the display mimics the experience of reading print on paper. The devices are also more portable than laptops, allowing readers to tote them almost anywhere they'd carry a newspaper, book or magazine.

The New York Times and the Washington Post declined to disclose how much the devices would be discounted for subscribers who sign up through Kindle. But similar programs are being discussed by newspapers around the country as they look for ways to stem the decline in readership and advertising dollars.

The Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News, which in March stopped delivering newspapers four days a week, are looking into helping readers who subscribe to the papers lease devices from e-book maker Plastic Logic of Mountain View, Calif.

The Los Angeles Times is also "in preliminary talks with several companies to provide discounted e-readers to consumers who agree to subscribe to the paper," said Times Publisher Eddy Hartenstein.