Large-format, newspaper-friendly Kindle may be coming

Amazon's last New York press conference gave us the Kindle 2. Now there's one scheduled for Wednesday morning at Pace University in lower Manhattan, and rumor has it that it's "a new, large format device that's optimized for reading newspapers and magazines."

Pace University happens to be adjacent to and on Park Row, New York's "Newspaper Row" of the 19th century -- and wouldn't you know it, the New York Times is partnering with Amazon on the new gadget:

Such e-reading devices are due in the next year from a range of companies, including the News Corporation, the magazine publisher Hearst and Plastic Logic, a well-financed start-up company that expects to start making digital newspaper readers by the end of the year at a plant in Dresden, Germany.

But it is Amazon, maker of the Kindle, that appears to be first in line to try throwing an electronic life preserver to old-media companies. As early as this week, according to people briefed on the online retailer’s plans, Amazon will introduce a larger version of its Kindle wireless device tailored for displaying newspapers, magazines and perhaps textbooks.

It's not quite Minority Report yet, but stay tuned.

UPDATE: ZDNet editor-in-chief Larry Dignan offers his thoughts on why the new device is worthless as a "newspaper-saving" device but a solid move to capture the college textbook market.