Shifting to digital?
Amazon announced in August 2012 that its eBook sales had exceeded that of their print counterparts. Print journal subscriptions were long ago eclipsed by their electronic counterparts, and now stand as the predominant format in terms of library purchases. Digital music has skipped from tape, vinyl and CD to cloud-based streaming. But where did our newspapers go? This post looks at the relative merits of a traditional newspaper format and the online news site.
The basic purpose of both formats is consistent: to deliver relevant news to large numbers of people while building revenue from advertising. But how have things changed since the internet became the number one news source, and where do the print and electronic editions of newspapers sit in relation to that?
Newspaper value
Newspapers are static, isolated points of reporting in the media world and have several unique benefits compared to their online counterparts. The following sections attempt to highlight these benefits, and show how a digital edition of a print newspaper (i.e. an exact replica but in digital format) can fill the gap between the printed paper and the news site.
Editorial vigour
The rigid structure of the newspaper allows a higher level of synthesis between news stories, the editorial commentary and other components of the print version. The space limits also indicate a necessity for the most effective and relevant reporting to meet the consumer needs at the other end. The speed, flexibility and expandability of online news sites mean that these boundaries are not in place, and the emphasis has switched from considered, selected news, to all news, immediately and everywhere. It could be argued therefore that the newspaper version has had more editorial thought put into its content, and therefore offers better value to the reader.
Robust content
One of the great differentiators between print and online content is that the print is a stronger copy of record. Content on online sites can be updated, changed and adapted as many times as necessary, making it more transient, and coincidentally less transparent. The sole focus of the print version is on news, whereas the online edition can have split objectives, distracting from the purpose of informing.
Intuitive layouts
Newspapers look the way they do thanks of centuries of evolution to ensure that the reader gets the best experience from the content. While the purpose of providing a decent experience to the end-user is predominantly the same for the online versions, where eye/mouse-tracking research has long been in effect to optimise the online experience, the need to implement prominent advertising placeholders and other cross-linking often sacrifices a clean and attractive layout.
Universal appeal
Digital natives are a group whose newspaper use is lower than any other demographic segment. However, for those groups that are not connected to the online world in the same way as the new digital generations , the newspaper is an essential form of communication and information, right from the local to world view.
Tenacity of information
In a study conducted in 2011 by three doctoral candidates from the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon, it was observed that recall of news stories was higher in those who read from a newspaper than an online site, based mostly around the formatting and ease of access to a whole story in the print version. The whole report can be found here, and is an interesting read: Medium Matters: Newsreaders’ Recall and Engagement with Online and Print Newspapers. A second conclusion from this research was that since an online news story is quickly archived and stored in a fixed location, there is less subconscious impetus to store the information in memory as a simple online search query will return the article for reference very quickly
Depth and breadth
In a 2011 paper entitled “Newspapers Offer More News Than Do Major Online Sites” published in Newspaper Research Journal, Scott Maier wrote about print versus online newspapers in the actual quality of news delivered via the two media. He analysed major online news sources against print newspapers, and concluded that the print versions (and by association those identical electronic versions of the print) actually had more news reported in them than the online sites.
Social media as a vehicle for fast-breaking news
Where does this leave print? The Knight Digital Media Center (UC Berkeley), wrote an interesting piece on the decline of print newspapers, but do highlight a real value in the print edition while outlining its decline: “The print edition contains longer feature stories, "sit-down" news to be perused” This is in comparison to the online website edition of a newspaper which is constantly updated throughout a day with new stories, and the matching of site and print is nowhere to be seen (see the graphics on the KDMC page). Fuelled by social media, the online website environment naturally lends itself more to shorter, rapid articles and news items than the longer articles found in the traditional print newspaper format. But where does this leave the long-form typified by the traditional newspaper.
Bridging the gap
Everything is about value in the delivery of news content, whether that value is rapid dissemination, or insightful editorial commentary. So what does the newspaper offer in these stakes, and how is it different from the news website that potentially holds more information, and which is likely to be also more up to date?
Services which retain the shape, content and editorial rigour of the newspaper format, but are adapted to the online environment are an effective way to bridge the gap between print and online. They faithfully reproduce the exact format of the print versions of hosts of newspapers from around the world, with advertising included, and push them to not only an online interface but also to multiple mobile and portable formats. They can also be deployed widely across vast user groups, organisations or academic institutions. Stories are interlaced with sharing capabilities to take advantage of the social web and discovery services, but the reader is still furnished with a media-rich version of the print edition. The other benefit is that the user receives original news from a plethora of newspapers from around the world, in the original form, as opposed to newswire agencies whose stories are duplicated countless times all over the web.
This kind of hybrid-online news source offers not only the opportunity to disseminate the greater news-bearing potential of the print paper to vast numbers of new readers, but it also builds on the technological advances we have at our disposal these days to create rich multimedia content that can be accessed across a range of devices and provide real value to end-users.
Subscribe to PressDisplay for 2013, and receive the remainder of 2012 on completely free.
Or simply sign up for a free trial.
PressDisplay for libraries is the perfect way to deploy up to date news to patrons and staff via one single service. Over 2,200 newspapers (covering over 35 languages) from around the world are available in original format via web, tablet or mobile devices, and offer cutting edge technologies to create interactive and shareable news items from otherwise static news content from printed papers.
> Find out more about PressDisplay here
> Contact our sales team to purchase PressDisplay for your library
Why the printed paper is still king of the news
29 nov 2012 Filed under: Research ProductivityShifting to digital?
Amazon announced in August 2012 that its eBook sales had exceeded that of their print counterparts. Print journal subscriptions were long ago eclipsed by their electronic counterparts, and now stand as the predominant format in terms of library purchases. Digital music has skipped from tape, vinyl and CD to cloud-based streaming. But where did our newspapers go? This post looks at the relative merits of a traditional newspaper format and the online news site.
The basic purpose of both formats is consistent: to deliver relevant news to large numbers of people while building revenue from advertising. But how have things changed since the internet became the number one news source, and where do the print and electronic editions of newspapers sit in relation to that?
Newspaper value
Newspapers are static, isolated points of reporting in the media world and have several unique benefits compared to their online counterparts. The following sections attempt to highlight these benefits, and show how a digital edition of a print newspaper (i.e. an exact replica but in digital format) can fill the gap between the printed paper and the news site.
Editorial vigour
The rigid structure of the newspaper allows a higher level of synthesis between news stories, the editorial commentary and other components of the print version. The space limits also indicate a necessity for the most effective and relevant reporting to meet the consumer needs at the other end. The speed, flexibility and expandability of online news sites mean that these boundaries are not in place, and the emphasis has switched from considered, selected news, to all news, immediately and everywhere. It could be argued therefore that the newspaper version has had more editorial thought put into its content, and therefore offers better value to the reader.
Robust content
One of the great differentiators between print and online content is that the print is a stronger copy of record. Content on online sites can be updated, changed and adapted as many times as necessary, making it more transient, and coincidentally less transparent. The sole focus of the print version is on news, whereas the online edition can have split objectives, distracting from the purpose of informing.
Intuitive layouts
Newspapers look the way they do thanks of centuries of evolution to ensure that the reader gets the best experience from the content. While the purpose of providing a decent experience to the end-user is predominantly the same for the online versions, where eye/mouse-tracking research has long been in effect to optimise the online experience, the need to implement prominent advertising placeholders and other cross-linking often sacrifices a clean and attractive layout.
Universal appeal
Digital natives are a group whose newspaper use is lower than any other demographic segment. However, for those groups that are not connected to the online world in the same way as the new digital generations , the newspaper is an essential form of communication and information, right from the local to world view.
Tenacity of information
In a study conducted in 2011 by three doctoral candidates from the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon, it was observed that recall of news stories was higher in those who read from a newspaper than an online site, based mostly around the formatting and ease of access to a whole story in the print version. The whole report can be found here, and is an interesting read: Medium Matters: Newsreaders’ Recall and Engagement with Online and Print Newspapers. A second conclusion from this research was that since an online news story is quickly archived and stored in a fixed location, there is less subconscious impetus to store the information in memory as a simple online search query will return the article for reference very quickly
Depth and breadth
In a 2011 paper entitled “Newspapers Offer More News Than Do Major Online Sites” published in Newspaper Research Journal, Scott Maier wrote about print versus online newspapers in the actual quality of news delivered via the two media. He analysed major online news sources against print newspapers, and concluded that the print versions (and by association those identical electronic versions of the print) actually had more news reported in them than the online sites.
Social media as a vehicle for fast-breaking news
Where does this leave print? The Knight Digital Media Center (UC Berkeley), wrote an interesting piece on the decline of print newspapers, but do highlight a real value in the print edition while outlining its decline: “The print edition contains longer feature stories, "sit-down" news to be perused” This is in comparison to the online website edition of a newspaper which is constantly updated throughout a day with new stories, and the matching of site and print is nowhere to be seen (see the graphics on the KDMC page). Fuelled by social media, the online website environment naturally lends itself more to shorter, rapid articles and news items than the longer articles found in the traditional print newspaper format. But where does this leave the long-form typified by the traditional newspaper.
Bridging the gap
Everything is about value in the delivery of news content, whether that value is rapid dissemination, or insightful editorial commentary. So what does the newspaper offer in these stakes, and how is it different from the news website that potentially holds more information, and which is likely to be also more up to date?
Services which retain the shape, content and editorial rigour of the newspaper format, but are adapted to the online environment are an effective way to bridge the gap between print and online. They faithfully reproduce the exact format of the print versions of hosts of newspapers from around the world, with advertising included, and push them to not only an online interface but also to multiple mobile and portable formats. They can also be deployed widely across vast user groups, organisations or academic institutions. Stories are interlaced with sharing capabilities to take advantage of the social web and discovery services, but the reader is still furnished with a media-rich version of the print edition. The other benefit is that the user receives original news from a plethora of newspapers from around the world, in the original form, as opposed to newswire agencies whose stories are duplicated countless times all over the web.
This kind of hybrid-online news source offers not only the opportunity to disseminate the greater news-bearing potential of the print paper to vast numbers of new readers, but it also builds on the technological advances we have at our disposal these days to create rich multimedia content that can be accessed across a range of devices and provide real value to end-users.
Special reader offer on Library PressDisplay
Subscribe to PressDisplay for 2013, and receive the remainder of 2012 on completely free.
Or simply sign up for a free trial.
PressDisplay for libraries is the perfect way to deploy up to date news to patrons and staff via one single service. Over 2,200 newspapers (covering over 35 languages) from around the world are available in original format via web, tablet or mobile devices, and offer cutting edge technologies to create interactive and shareable news items from otherwise static news content from printed papers.
> Find out more about PressDisplay here
> Contact our sales team to purchase PressDisplay for your library
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