MediaFile

Before we get to the point of this blog post, let’s see what’s up with Gannett lately.

Its stock rocketed some 40 percent last week, something many experts and news outlets said was because a big investor doubled its stake because it thinks that Gannett’s newspapers might have a future. It rocketed again on Monday, though it’s down 20 percent today (Tuesday). Some of that’s likely because of short sellers covering their bets on the stock’s movements.

Not only that, the company rejected the latest overture from a possible buyer on its Tucson, Arizona paper, prolonging the agony over whether the paper will close or not. Quarterly earnings are on their way this week too, which the company already said would be less than hot. Finally, USA Today is going to show up in fewer hotel rooms now that Marriott said it will start offering customers the option to get no paper at all.

Against this backdrop comes the latest press release:

USA TODAY is now making a selection of its blogs and online communities available for Amazon Kindle, a portable reader that wirelessly downloads books, blogs, magazines and newspapers to a crisp, high-resolution electronic paper display.

USA TODAY blogs and online communities featured on the Kindle include: Cruise Log, with the latest news and trends in the world of cruising; Game Hunters, an online community with a focus on video games and “interactive awesomeness;” Lifeline Live, your ticket to celebrity and entertainment news; OnDeadline, offering breaking news and must-read stories; Game On!, covering the latest sports news; The Oval, an online community dedicated to tracking the Obama administration; Pop Candy, unwrapping pop culture’s hip and hidden treasures; and Today in the Sky, delivering the latest news and analysis about airlines, airports and air travel.

Online retailer Amazon.com unveiled a slimmer version of its Kindle digital book reader on Monday, with more storage and faster page turns.

Reuters’ Franklin Paul had a chance to see the new unit in action, as Laura Porco, Director, Kindle Books, demos its text-to-speech and buy on the fly features.

This is turning out to be an earnings season when all bets are off on how technology giants will perform. With tech earnings taking the market on a roller-coaster ride, it wouldn’t be surprising if investors are a little sick in the stomach already. 

The hits and misses so far among the biggest and brightest:

Intel: Missed expectations, profit fell 90 percent and they said they wouldn’t give a detailed quarterly forecast due to the economic uncertainty.

IBM: Beat expectations and gave an outlook above Wall Street estimates. Not only did IBM shares surge on the news, it even lifted major U.S. indexes.

Check Out the top products on Amazon.com.
 
Amazon.com just came out with its "best of" lists for 2008.  Since Amazon is best known for selling books (even though it offers everything from groceries to jewelry these days), we thought you might want to know which titles were the hottest this year.

No surprise to tween girls or their parents, the best-selling book was "Breaking Dawn," also known as the fourth book in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight saga.

The book that got the most positive reviews was "The Revolution: A Manifesto" by Ron Paul. Meyer's "Twilight" got the most positive reviews for a Kindle book. Of course, Amazon's Kindle was the best-selling electronic item on its 2008 list.
 
The book most frequently purchased as a gift? It was the first book in Meyer's series, "Twilight" - the one that became a hit movie when it opened in November.
 
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