To Fund Longform Journalism, 'Toronto Star' Tests Ebook Subscriptions

Seeking new ways to fund longform journalism, newspaper and magazine publishers have lately released a range of short, inexpensive ebooks, featuring repackaged feature articles (see The Atlantic's The Obama Presidency, Explained) and archival material (Vanity Fair's The Best of Vanity Fair: Elizabeth Taylor), through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other ebook sellers. In one success story, Wired was able to sell more than 50,000 copies of an expanded feature story on tech entrepreneur turned fugitive John McAfee, priced at $0.99 per 47-page copy, of which the sole distributor (Amazon) took a 30% share. Read more...