Fri May 8, 2009 — by Glenn Hauman

Kindle margins-- profit, not page margins

Remember how I was saying just Wednesday that the Kindle might finally be ready for comics? Well, not at this publisher price point. Cynopsis reports:

Judging from the revenue margins Amazon is seeking, the Kindle many not be the lifeline newspaper publishers were hoping for after all. Dallas Morning News Publisher and CEO James Moroney went on the record stating that Amazon was demanding 70% of subscription revenues during Wednesday's U.S. Senate subcommittee meeting on the future of newspapers. (Paidcontent found this link to CSPAN's coverage of the event.) What's more, Amazon is demanding that newspapers sign over all electronic distribution rights to their content on devices other than the Kindle. (And the studios thought Apple was monopolistic.) News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch also chided Amazon's approach during his earnings call, saying that News Corp. would strike no deals with Amazon: "We will not be ceding our content rights to the fine people who created the Kindle."

If they're trying to push Murdoch around with numbers like that, I can't see them cutting DC or Marvel a break, let alone Archie or Avatar.

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