The Memphis (Tennessee) Commercial Appeal's e-edition, called e-appeal, has shown an increase of 31 percent during a time of marked declines in readership throughout the industry, Poynter Online reported.

The paper's e-edition accounts for almost 40 percent of its total circulation, which is mostly made up of classrooms that subscribe to the online edition. The e-edition launched in September 2008.

The investment on the part of schools is due to what Karl Wurzbach, The Commercial Appeal's vice president of sales and marketing, described as "a decision to bite the bullet and tell the schools that effective the beginning of the 2008-2009 school year, the only way they could get NIE (Newspapers in Education) copies was digitally."

As a result, the price of papers was reduced and 70,000 to 80,000 readers have been counted in middle schools and high schools, Poynter reported.

The e-edition is offered in PDF form, which makes it easy to print and e-mail stories and also incorporates interactive elements, including the choice to translate stories or listen to them using the audio option.

Increased interest and readership of the e-edition hasn't resulted in increased in revenue, although the Appeal has cut costs on printing and delivering the paper. Wurzbach commented on the eventual need to increase advertising revenue for the paper saying, "our intent is to find a big advertiser sponsor for the NIE edition."

"I think a big part of the future for newspapers will involve electronic editions that match the experience of reading ink on paper," Editor Chris Peck said in a Commercial Appeal article announcing the e-edition. "The emergence of the Amazon Kindle and recent developments in e-ink technology suggest to me that digital reading of newspaper content is close at hand."