Comments on: Newspapers Still Have Much to Learn About the Web

By: News Quiz

News Quiz — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 22:53:02 +0000

Very true issue raised here.As the newspapers will loose here there existence.If they don’t improve and update thier quality
of presence on internet with regular changing trends on internet.

By: Tim Woods

Tim Woods — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 14:55:25 +0000

Very insightful, constructive input for the newspaper industry. The newspaper that adopts even a few of your suggestions could very well rule the web.

For several years I worked in the newspaper industry back in the mid-1980′s and not a lot has changed, industrial-strength, bulk production, and generally mediocre design. Newspapers should take some queues from the magazine industry to better embrace the web.

Thanks!

By: Tim Jahn

Tim Jahn — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 02:37:17 +0000

Great stuff here. It gets me how it\’s 2008 and newspapers still haven\’t grasped the basics of social networking and the current state of the social Internet. Their lack of understanding in this realm is only contributing to their ultimate demise.

And bless you for not requiring me to sign up or log in to your site…you\’ve gained a new subscriber. :)

By: Bryan Pearson

Bryan Pearson — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:55:41 +0000

First off, I think its hilarious that the people complaining about comments, and saying how they “find no use in them”, are leaving comments. Can’t they see the benefit in this discussion? On this very page? Comments serve a great purpose, and connecting with readers and having discussions with the people who are paying the bills is nothing to blow off.

Secondly, as a person currently employed by a large newspaper company to do web development, I see a lot of scared faces in the ‘suits’ calling the shots. They simply don’t understand the way that the ‘kids’ are getting media. They just don’t understand the way that the next generation of consumers will gather information.

Text messages, social networks, email, RSS, cell phones, the web, and anything else that arises in the next few years are the technologies that future generations will use. Not delivered paper.

Although I believe there will be plenty of print products well into the future, it will slowly fade from being the mass product it currently is, to a niche product that select few will have to pay a premium for.

On the front of “who will pay for the journalism if there’s no subscriptions and everything is free?”, the answer is, the web. Although the margins will be deadly thin and profits won’t be nearly as high, the newspapers of today will simply have to find a way to squeeze interesting and in depth reporting into a smaller office on lower budgets.

By: Laura G.

Laura G. — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 12:28:59 +0000

I consider the NY Times the gold standard of newspaper websites. One of the big reasons is that its home page actually looks like the front page of a newspaper. My own hometown newspaper\’s website, by contrast, looks nothing like a newspaper and only contains a few select stories, not its entire day\’s content. Also, it has that annoying pagination thing that makes it impossible to print, copy and paste or do anything else to share their stories.