Amazon reorgs Newsstand, combining newspapers and magazines, moves blogs
I was working on my monthly Snapshot
this morning, and when I went to check the number of magazines, newspapers, and blogs, I couldn’t get the numbers the way I usually do.
In the past, those three categories have been listed separately under
Newsstand (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)
This time, magazines and newspapers appear to have been combined into one category…and at first, I couldn’t find blogs at all.
The number for magazines and newspapers was 2,007.
Magazines on February 1st were 1,732, and newspapers were 158. Together, that’s 1,890…and magazines that month had andincrease of 354 (which was unusually high), so 2,007 seems reasonable.
Blogs were 15,593 on February 1st, so clearly, they weren’t part of this number.
I checked this blog in the Kindle store
I Love My Kindle blog (at AmazonSmile*)
and from there, could get to the blog bestsellers…which at least showed that blogs still were for sale in the Kindle store…whew! 🙂
My subscribers (thanks, subscribers!) are my most reliable source of writing income, so they are empowering the writing I do. I especially appreciate them sticking with it when delivery has been unreliable of late. Perhaps that was connected to this change? I’m guessing it wasn’t, that it’s just wishful thinking on my part. 🙂
If the blogs had actually been gone from sale in the Kindle store, that would require some re-thinking. I don’t think this blog would stop, but I might look into Patreon or other means of generating income from it (I really like that I don’t do regular-type ads in this blog, and would want to continue that).
It’s interesting to combine newspapers and magazines…I suppose that they really are a continuum, if you take away the physical component. The biggest thing is the periodicity, I guess…typically daily for newspapers, typically monthly for magazines. Magazines have better pictures, and I would think of newspapers as being more current events…but I don’t see a clear line. Time often reports on current events, and some newspapers do nice longer-focus stories.
Blogs do feel like they belong more in the same category of periodicals than they do with books…they are often even more frequent than newspapers, and can definitely be even more stream of consciousness style.
I’m okay with this change…but I am curious about what it may mean in the future. Should there be a separation between magazines and books, for example? Those feel different, but some book series come out monthly…and a pulp like Doc Savage definitely seems like a series of books.
What do you think? Does this change make any difference to you? Would you find it odd to see no separation between your hometown newspaper and People Magazine when you were searching? What do you see as the role of blogs in the USA Kindle store? Feel free to tell me and my readers what you think by commenting on this post.
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* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get. Shop ’til you help!
This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other blogs/organizations, buy Amazon Gift Cards from a link on the site, then use those to buy your items. There will be no cost to you, and a benefit to them.