Are e-books the new newspapers? (BBC)

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By David Reid
Reporter, BBC Click

Electronic book readers are still a minority pursuit for book lovers, but the devices have the potential to become the norm one day.

With newspapers in crisis, there are now suggestions that e-books might offer journalism a new portable platform and subscription model.

One French firm already taking advantage of the electronic subscription model is Ave! Comics which provides cartoon strips to paying e-book users.

"Our idea is to get cartoons more widely distributed to another public and in the end an international public," said Allison Reber from Ave! Comics.

Industries such as newspapers, magazines and books, even copyright-free content from Google, could benefit from the sale of text content as downloads.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/8003724.stm