2 posts tagged “newspaper”
I have spent the last few hours playing around with the beta version of the New York Times Reader software. In a word, revolutionary!
The Times and Microsoft (sorry Steve!) may have a winner here, as well as a glimpse into the future when we download our newspapers to a portable device and can read it WITHOUT squinting and going blind. This is designed to bring the print on paper experience into the 21st century, giving you something to hold and flip through off-line, with all the benefits of being online - search-able, tag-able, email-able, multimedia-able (so far just photo galleries).
It beats the dedicated readers that are giving it a go again because it is built to run of full versions of XP or Vista; utilizing all the horse power they provide. This may be what is needed to give the tablet PC format a shot in the arm and it may also be a glimpse into what newspapers are going to have to become in order to survive.
The last few months have been a whirlwind of activity at work. We are downsizing, no secret; and at the same time, we are attempting to meld the newspaper with the web in what could be pessimistically viewed as transferring as many of the able-bodied to lifeboats as fast as possible.
I have been a part of that effort in both covert and overt ways, but something has been nagging me from the back of my brain this whole time.
Last week, I committed a minor 'internet transgression' at work. Something done in a harmless fashion and with the best intent, but nevertheless something bad in the view of my employer. During the 10 minute or so conversation that it took to correct the situation (i.e. remove the video from YouTube), a light bulb went on and I knew what had been bothering me.
Most newspapers won't survive the transition to a web-based information structure because they are, first and foremost, corporate. Journalism is what they do, corporate is who they are.
Corporate believes in competition over cooperation. Corporate believes in control over freedom. Corporate believe in profit. Corporate believes in secrets.
All of these values run in the opposite direction from what web journalism is and what it is becoming. At its essence, the web is about freedom and choice and cooperation, and the blossoming citizen journalism flow is one of those results. In the 10-plus years of the web's existence, why have no major web enhancements come from traditional news organizations, even though many of them were among the first to set up shop online?
Innovation and survival on the web require sharing and cooperation. They also require an openness and free flow of information that corporate journalism refuses to provide. Controlling the information flow is what corporate journalism is about; web journalism is about getting around that. As the web develops its own mechanisms for journalism, many many people will follow.
The speed of change is ever increasing; unless corporate journalism can become much less corporate, it will be left behind. Heck, Yahoo News is the already the biggest news site on the web. A strategy of control is not a strategy for survival. Embracing the freedom of the web is the only way to become part of the flow; fighting it will leave many journalists and their organizations washed up on the shore.
