New Tech Series: Newspapers: is online really better?
Many newspapers around the country have embraced what many people have referred to as the Information Age. The current era has also been referred to as the Connected Age:
The Information Age is the age of the knowledge worker. The Connected Age is the age of the web worker. Knowledge workers create and manage information, massaging it into intangible knowledge goods. Web workers create and manage relationships across knowledge goods, hardware, and people.
In the beginning this was done merely by having a website where you could view additional content that was unavailable in the print editions due to editorial constraints, be they size, content, or otherwise. The newspaper website was also seen as a source for additional advertising revenue, which has been the profit mechanism for most newspapers.
Then as the Internet become more common place, newspapers and magazines started to produce content solely for the online editions.
As the trend towards regular access to the Internet continued, it became clear that a certain segment of the market had ceased to read the print editions, indeed, many young people never started reading the newspaper in print at all. It was also clear that for the newspapers to keep up with the social and economic trend that they would have to shift their attitudes to the distribution of the news to match the reader.
This is particularly noteable with the Atlanta-Journal Constitution (AJC). In February of 2007, the AJC decided to cut a large number of jobs, offer buyouts to many other employees, and drastically reduce the distribution area for the print editions. This was done to ostensibly adjust to the new ways that news is being viewed today:
The changes come as the Atlanta paper, like other newspapers, adjusts to major shifts in news consumption and advertising spending on the Internet.
- Ga.’s Largest Newspaper Offers Buyouts, cbsnews.com
While I agree that shifting attitudes towards the distribution of news and the way it is being consumed does require some changes, I wonder if the online format is really better.
I like being connected to the news, even more I like being connected in general. I carry a smartphone that checks my corporate e-mail every 15 minutes, I carry a pager and I use text messaging for alerts and to keep in touch with my friends. I have an account on most of the major instant message services and I even have a blog. In fact I would say that I am one of the more connected and online people in my social group.
Despite all of this, I worry that there are some points of value that are being overlooked as we make the headlong rush to placing everything online. From a journalistic standpoint the content may be the same, and yes, online newspapers often give new opportunities for engaging advertisements that just can’t be put into a print edition. What I find missing is the other value that comes from a print newspaper.
When I go to the barbershop on Saturdays, I often have to sit and wait. What do I do with this free time? Do I pick up my smartphone and surf the Internet? Do I check my e-mail? No, I sit there patiently in my chair and read that morning’s paper. Occassionally I will engage in conversation with the other people in the shop, especially when there has been something interesting going on, such as UGA beating the University of Florida. Can you easily sit in you chair in the barbershop and read the online edition of the AJC? Maybe in your barbershop, but definitely not in mine.
But beyond the value of the feel of the newsprint in your hand, there are what could be referred to as value-added services that we derive from a print edition:
- the older papers can serve as packing material for shipping gifts
- they can be used as kindling to light a fire
- they can be used to put down on a table or other surface to protect it from paint
- they can be folded into hats and boats to entertain your friends children (or your own)
None of the above can easily be done with the online edition of a newspaper, unless of course you are willing to print it out first.
Is an online newspaper really better? Post a comment and let us know your opinion.
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Why can’t you read the online version while you wait to be shorn? Is that the AJC’s fault or due to the shortcomings of your chosen smartphone? The things you list as “value-added services” of an offline newspaper don’t really have anything to do with the newspaper itself. As you noted when you alluded printing the online version they are other capabilities of the physical medium: the paper.
Can you ask the printed newspaper to show you an article that was printed last year? How about asking the printed newspaper to send an interesting article to a sibling on the other side of the state?
Paper isn’t going away. The paperless society has been heralded for some time now and has so far failed to appear. You’ll still be able to create paper hats and boats for decades to come.
Embrace change!
Yes, my chosen smartphone does have some shortcomings, as does my cellular service in the area in which I live. We are still limited to EDGE in Valdosta. However, unless I choose to purchase something along the lines of an EEE PC, I am doubtful that even if my smartphone or network was improved that I would pick reading the paper online rather in the non-digital analog.
It’s really not that I think it is the newspaper’s place or responsibility to ensure the “value-added services”. It’s more the loss of a traditional activity. There is a certain nostalgia factor that is involved.