Kindle

Since at least the mid-90s, Oprah Winfrey has been credited with reigniting the publishing industry with her Oprah's Book Club. More recently, she's done her best to boost sales of Amazon's Kindle. But can the most powerful woman in media save daily newspapers? (Please.)

The Chicago Sun-Times' Mark Bieganski sure hopes so. In a blog post on his paper's Oprah blog, Mr. Bieganski does a little victory dance over Ms. Winfrey's endorsement of... The Chicago Sun-Times. (This link comes via Jim Romenesko.)

Writes Mr. Bieganski:

For the third time in two weeks, Oprah Winfrey showed a little love for the Sun-Times.  read more »

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Portfolio.com has a story up by Edmund Lee about Amazon's clever and admirably imaginative use of word of mouth as a means of promoting that little white reading machine they've been so excited about lately. Basically, they started a message board—proving once again that Web 2.0 is just a fancy version of what the internet in the early 90s—where people who want to see an actual Kindle in real life can post their location and wait for somone who lives nearby and has a bit of time on their hands to come forward and schedule a meet-up.

To wit: around lunchtime yesterday one Karen Bosscher from Lubbock, Texas posted a message asking if anyone in her area had a Kindle she could see so she can figure out if it's right for her family. This morning P. J. Gueras responded, telling Ms. Bosscher that although she and her husband live in Austin, they were planning to be in Lubbock for a wedding on Saturday, October 4th and could meet the. "If no one in Lubbock replies to your post, maybe you could meet my husband and me for breakfast to look at and discuss my Kindle before we leave for Austin on Sunday, October 5th," Ms. Gueras wrote.  read more »