Amazon.com's Kindle "wireless reading device" is an example of both the threat and opportunity that new media platforms pose for the newspaper industry, according to Quadrangle Group's Josh Steiner.

Steiner owns one of the hard-to-find devices, which have been consistently sold-out on Amazon . He said its wireless features are particularly promising -- you don't have to plug into a PC or look for a WiFi hotspot. It's also searchable and allows you to customize the type of news you want to read.

"That's the threat and the opportunity because it's not just the question now of (newspaper) content being divided and repackaged," he told the Reuters Global Hedge Fund and Private Equity Summit. Quadrangle, the private equity firm founded by former reporter Steve Rattner, is an advisor to the New York Times Co.

He admitted that the Kindle is very far from a complete package, but said it's still worth a close look "if you want a sense of where I think the world is going...where technological evolution has the ability to disrupt existing business models and in some cases enhance them."