How Amazon can help local news with the Echo Show

Bill Adair
Jul 27, 2017 · 2 min read

Our Amazon Echo Show sits on the kitchen counter flashing a mix of user tips (“Try ‘Alexa, tell me a Star Trek joke’ ”) and click-baity headlines (“Golden Retriever Gives Birth to Green Puppy.”).

The Show offers the familiar audio features of its audio siblings, but its real value is the screen. With a simple voice command, it can play YouTube videos and even movies and TV shows (“Alexa, play Season 1, Episode 3 of The Wire.”)

Reviewers have focused on the many things the Show can do. But they’ve missed the great new potential while the device is idle. In its resting mode, the Show is not only a “prime” opportunity for Amazon to sell us stuff, it is a new platform for journalism. (Disclosure: my daughter works for Amazon Web Services.)

The Show’s big advantage is its location. Owners place it in a prominent spot such as a kitchen or family room. I glance at ours dozens of times a day.

Instead of click-baity headlines like this one, Amazon should promote local news.

The headlines kick in when the Show reverts to what you might call screensaver mode. It displays a neutral background photo with the time and temperature and then cycles through the headlines and tips. Think flying toasters, but each toaster is a headline.

The device is similar to video screens on gasoline pumps. You’re a captive audience while you’re filling your tank, so you endure a mix of sports and weather updates as well as ads for candy and sodas.

For now, the Echo Show sticks to news and tips. But it’s easy to imagine the potential for selling things (“New Grisham novel released Tuesday; shall I order it for you?”).

It’s also easy to think about how the Show can help journalism — particularly state and local news coverage.

The headlines could be localized. Instead of green puppies the Show could tell us about the upcoming City Council agenda. It could alert us to recent votes in the state legislature. It could fact-check the local congressman.

Some outlets have already developed their own apps for the original Echo. Amazon should should make it easy to do the same for the headlines on the Show.

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