Amazon is trying to "make sure it's ahead of the curve before Apple gets involved," agreed Kurt Scherf, vice president and principal analyst with Parks Associates.

This move "brings them more smaller publishers" and is likely an attempt to "lock in the 'long tail' of the content," Scherf told the E-Commerce Times. "It's a volume and scale issue, which of course Amazon already knows well."

In the bigger picture, Amazon and others are "facing the challenge that Apple set the model for music and video" with its iTunes platform, he added. "They don't want that to happen again."

As new e-readers emerge, "clearly we will be looking at newspaper deals on these devices as well," he pointed out.

Overall, Scherf concluded, "the message here is that Amazon wants to be in front in terms of configuring these deals before Apple even gets there."

From the article, "Amazon Fattens E-Book Royalty Checks in Preemptive Strike" by Katherine Noyes

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