Tag Archives: newspapers

Digital Newspapers – Coming Soon?

By Mack D. Male ·

Post ImageA little over a year ago, I wrote that newspapers are one of my least favorite forms of media. To reiterate:

I hate almost everything about newspapers. I don’t like the size of the paper. I don’t like the way it makes everything black. I don’t like that every page has to be jammed full of stuff. I don’t like that the pages are not full color. I don’t like that once I find something interesting, I can’t do anything with it (like send it to a friend, or blog about it with a link, etc).

These things hold true today. So what has changed in the last year? A few things. The “magazine-newspaper” called Dose launched in some of Canada’s larger cities, and I have to admit that I like it better than a typical newspaper, probably because of the size of the pages and how they open like a book, rather than being folded horizontally. There’s lots of color and non-standard layouts too.

More interesting than that however, is that newspapers of the future, such as the one seen in “Minority Report”, are coming sooner than previously expected:

In the Tom Cruise sci-fi thriller “Minority Report,” a subway passenger scans an issue of USA Today that is a plastic video screen, thin, foldable and wireless, with constantly changing text.

The scene is no longer science fiction.

The so called “e-paper” technology is finally beginning to mature, making it feasible to employ for products like newspapers. Despite the recent advances, there is still a long way to go – there is no standard (not that we need one I guess) which means some e-paper is flexible and some is rigid, some can display full color and some cannot, some require a power source and some do not. I think it’s only a matter of time before the details are worked out however.

I eagerly await digital newspapers, and the editors of today’s publications should be excited too! The newspaper could once again be as “up-to-the-second” as TV stations, and the potential for advertising is immense – think Google AdSense, but in your dynamically updating newspaper. Digital newspapers would be better for the environment too! Let’s hope the technology advances and costs decline so that the digital newspaper will be a reality.

Read: CNET News.com

A Newspaper Revolution

By Mack D. Male ·

Earlier today I wrote a somewhat comical entry about how young people are no longer interested in the six o’clock news. Well, there was some seriousness there too – young people really are having an effect on news outlets of all types, from television to newspapers. So I thought it was especially appropriate that I’d come across a post from Jeff Jarvis where he talks about Rupert Murdoch’s speech today to the American Society of Newspaper Editors in Washington. For those of you that don’t know, Rupert Murdoch is top dog at News Corp.

According to Jarvis, the speech included lots of props to the Internet and specifically, to blogs. From what I read, Murdoch seems to have done a great job in providing some background to what he’s talking about, explaining how newspapers enjoyed a virtual monopoly until the radio was invented. Now, the time for newspapers to change has come – “The trends are against us,” Murdoch says. He’s not saying that news is dead however, just that it needs to be delivered differently:

The challenge, however, is to deliver that news in ways consumers want to receive it. Before we can apply our competitive advantages, we have to free our minds of our prejudices and predispositions, and start thinking like our newest consumers. In short, we have to answer this fundamental question: What do we – a bunch of digital immigrants — need to do to be relevant to the digital natives?

Talk about hitting the nail on the head. They are indeed “digital immigrants”, what an excellent way to describe the average newspaper editor. If there is anyone who could give a “call-to-arms” speech to the newspaper industry and have it be heard, I can’t think of a better man than Rupert Murdoch. He is so important, and so highly regarded. Let’s hope the editors listened.

I hate almost everything about newspapers. I don’t like the size of the paper. I don’t like the way it makes everything black. I don’t like that every page has to be jammed full of stuff. I don’t like that the pages are not full color. I don’t like that once I find something interesting, I can’t do anything with it (like send it to a friend, or blog about it with a link, etc). Please newspaper editors, hear Murdoch’s call, and bring the newspaper into the digital age!

Read: BuzzMachine