O.k., as everyone knows, newspapers have no future, not in their present form (nor in their present numbers, but that's another topic). Young people don't read them, despite decades of editorial attempts to pander to them.
Even the middle-aged don't read them as much as we once did. I still do, but I don't represent any group large enough to base a business model on.
Though I've been reading a daily paper for forty years - yeah, I started at age eight - see how weird I am - lately I prefer reading on line. Gray type on gray newsprint not only gets all over my fingers, it's also much harder to read than an LCD display. For the increasingly weak-eyed, middle-aged demographic that newspapers still serve, that matters.
The one thing I still like about reading a dead tree edition is that I know when I'm done. I start at the back, dispose of the soft news sections, usually including sports after I read Tank McNamara. I find the jumps that interest me, flip to their beginnings, and wind up back at the jump, where I continue with back-to-front reading. Yeah, sure, weird, but it's an algorithm that works for me.
I can't do that on line. On line, reading is never done. When I start the weekly recycling, though, and browse the unopened papers, I almost always find stories I missed on line. If I represented a large demographic, they would be looking for a way to help me, but alas, when newsprint is no more, I'll miss the ability to finish reading the day's news.
Update: Last sentence clarified.
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1 comment:
Amen, bro.
A real challenge for the next wave of web design will come in finding a way to give a sense of boundary to the experience. The open ended qualities of links and clouds are great, but the problem of drowning in the noise (and in oppressively minor emendations throughout the day, for example) is a kind of choke point. Newspapers as they are are dying, but the idea of a newspaper is far from gone.
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