I've been receiving the Kindle edition of the Republic for several days now. I'm currently subscribing to the print edition also. The Arizona Republic is actually a very good paper. In additional to the typical fare, they have a fair amount of well-researched and in-depth investigative type articles. Its conservative leanings are obvious and it does live up to its nickname "The Arizona Republican." However, it does seem that the editors try to be somewhat fair handed and overall it's more right of center, than far right. Occasionally it will take a stand on an issue that some would consider being progressive or moderate, or dare I use the word. . . "Liberal."
This is my review of the Kindle Edition of the Arizona Republic.
Pros:
* So far it has always arrived on time. It is already in my Kindle when I get up at 5 a.m. That is actually much earlier than the print edition. This is a big plus if you are an early riser or have leave the house early for work.
* Almost all of the "articles" and many of the "columns" are there and they seem well formatted.
* Like other Kindle periodicals there is a high level Section List that shows the sections (e.g. "Front Page," "Valley and State," etc.) Within each section you can access a list of the articles it contains in the event that you want to jump to a certain one.
* There are no ads. This is actually a pro and a con because sometimes it's nice to see what sales are going on. However, I'm glad the ads are gone.
* It contains many (but not all) of the "Regional" (e.g. East Valley) section pieces.
* There are also the advantages of Kindle newspapers that all of them share, not just the Republic. You can take it wherever you go, such as on vacation. I always feel rushed in the morning and rarely have time to read as much as I want. It's nice to be able to read it during lunch or other times (e.g. Dr's waiting room) when you have free time. You can search the paper on keywords. You can clip articles future reference. You don't end up with a stack of papers at the end of the week so you can feel more "green."
Cons
* Price. Almost all "local" US Kindle papers are around $6/month. The Republic is priced at $10/month, which is similar to Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, or the LA Times. I'm not sure if the Republic considers itself to be comparable to papers like the Washington Post or Wall Street Journal but it seems they have placed a premium on the Kindle edition. At this price, it's not that much less than Home Delivery. If the price was more reasonable I would probably subscribe to both editions (print and kindle). However, given the price, it's hard just justify that. The Republic may actually lose some revenue by pricing the Kindle so high. I would think more people would subscribe if the price was lower.
* Absolutely nothing that isn't straight, paragraph formatted text. (e.g. no charts, illustrations, tables, lists or photos). I know the Kindle is mostly a text based device but some other newspapers have photos with some articles. In general most newspaper photos actually add little to the story. However, it would be nice to have an occasional picture in my kindle. Some of the charts or tables add a lot to a story and you miss some critical information without these. For Example, in a recent Kindle edition, an article ends with the words: "The following is a look at some of the immigration proposals likely to grab headlines in the months ahead: " If you have the print edition, there is an extensive table telling you what those are. In the Kindle,.. nothing. Why? Because that list is in a table and they didn't convert it.
* I was glad to see that they had Movie Reviews in a separate section. However, it is a little misleading. It seems that almost any article about celebrities or the entertainment industry ends up in the "Movie Review" section. It should be renamed or the non-review articles placed elsewhere. I noticed that in the Sunday edition this section was called Arts and Entertainment, which seems more accurate. I also wish they would publish movie show times. I know that I can get these on the internet, but I'd still like to have them.
* Some sections are not included such as comics, local obituaries, weather, classifieds, Calendar and "Yes" inserts. I can live without most of these but I wish some of missing sections were included. I'd really like to see a calendar of upcoming local events in the Kindle. Note: I'm not a big sports fan so I'm not sure how much of the sports section is included.
* Some syndicated columns are not included.
Summary: When I saw that they had an edition of the Republic it was one of the factors that made me decide to buy a Kindle. Overall it's implemented and formatted very well. Price, to me, is an issue. Given that it's delivered electronically it costs the Republic nothing to add new Kindle subscribers. I think price is the one thing that may discourage people from subscribing to the Kindle edition, or be willing to pay for both home delivery and Kindle. However, I have decided to continue my Kindle edition. It's a nice addition to my Kindle.
Update (after 2 week trial)
So far I have been pleased with my Kindle edition. It's been on time every morning (at least by 5am). There is an occassional glitch, such as an article that is missing the headline, but otherwise it has come across well. Based on my experience I plan to continue on to a paid subscription and can recommend that you try it.
Update after about 1 ½ years:
* The paper has been consistently delivered early each morning. On the couple of occasions it was late, they sent a message to the Kindle stating it would be late.
* For a few weeks the text was containing editor comments, such as "leave next paragraph out." They must have been sending the first draft of articles to the Kindle. It was actually kind of funny. That has stopped.
* As stated in my review what you get is a basic text dump of the articles. No pictures, symbols, tables, charts, editorial cartoons, weather, etc. I had thought that eventually they would improve on this, and like other Kindle papers start adding these. No such luck. This is very disappointing. With the Kindle's growth there should be large market for AZ Republic users. However, many will not want to pay for a heavily stripped down version, for this rate. Papers wonder why they are losing out to electronic media and the web, where everybody feels that everything should be free. This is a great opportunity to offer an electronic version, and have paying customers. They do not seem to be taking this it seriously.
UPDATE: After subscribing to the Kindle edition for over two years, I finally canceled. They quality just keeps getting worse and worse. Front page ends up in the middle, Ann Landers is in the business section, screwed up formatting, comments like "put headline here" instead of the actual headline, and other problems every day. I was a satisfied user at one point, not anymore. My rating goes from 4 stars to 2.
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