News Flash: More people get their news from the Web than from newspapers. While this hardly counts as news to most of our readers, the Pew Research Center is surprised by the shift. In a survey of 1,489 adults in the U.S. conducted in early December, 40 percent said they get most of their national and international news from the Internet, compared to 35 percent from newspapers. The percentage of newspaper readers has been pretty steady since 2005. What’s changed is the number of people admitting they get their news from the Internet as well, up from 24 percent the last time the Pew Center asked this question in September, 2007. (TV still beats both as a news source, with 70 percent, but give it a couple more years and the Internet should overtake that as well). → Read More
Newspapers are still lurching their way around the Web, a new study finds, but at least they are making some progress. The Bivings Group released a study today that quantifies the Website features of the top 100 newspapers in the U.S. Among the findings: Nearly every newspaper site has reporter-written blogs and some form of video; features that elicit content from readers are on the rise; podcasts and mandatory registrations are down; social networking features are pretty much non-existent.
You can pretty much see all of the findings in two graphs, which I’ve marked up. (Click on the images for a larger view). In the one above, which shows the penetration of all the online features on newspaper sites, 93 percent have reporter blogs and 100 percent offer articles in RSS feeds. Yet only one percent put ads in those RSS feeds. That seems like an opportunity, even though most RSS ads are complete garbage and readers hate them.
In terms of reader-submitted material, newspapers are more comfortable accepting images than words. → Read More
Google’s plans for global empire, by way of digitizing a bunch of dusty old newspapers, received a strong boost today, now that Mountain View has secured the archives of paperofrecord.com. Paper of Record has been digitizing entire newspaper archives, including the Toronto Star as well as other international newspapers, for some time now. With those archives now under its control, there’s nothing to stop Google from marching on Capital City, Earth. That, or merely being a convenient place to search old headlines. “Gee, I wonder how the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported the moon landing?” There you go. → Read More
She’s on the left Is electronic paper ready to hit the big time? Plastic Logic is set to unveil a version of electronic paper at Demo (a tech trade show in San Diego) today, one that the reeling newspaper industry desperately wants to succeed. The device still doesn’t have a name, nor will it have a price—we’ll have to wait until CES to find out what it costs (provided it doesn’t “leak”). The paper updates wirelessly, and is able to store hundreds of papers of content, be it from books, newspapers, magazines, whatever. For comparison’s sake, this new device from Plastic Logic has a screen that’s 2.5 times bigger than the Kindle, which wasn’t exactly hurting for screen real estate. The mystery screen should be available in the first half of next year. → Read More
[photopress:nydn.jpg,full,right] The New York Daily News constantly plays second fiddle to the New York Post. The Post has the trashiest headlines you’ll ever see and the Daily News tries to play catch up. Not next Sunday! Next week, the Daily News teams up with EMI, the first record label to go DRM-free way back in the iTunes Plus days, and will give away three whole songs out of a selection of 120,000. Subscribers to the Daily News will get an access code that they’ll be able to input on its Web site. (Wow, you can do that on the Internet?!) Nothing wrong with free (as in beer and freedom) music, especially if it’s DRM-free. A similar giveaway will happen the following week. Me waits for the snappy Post headline making fun of the giveaway. EMI gives music away to newspaper readers [CNET] → Read More
If you love newspapers but hate inky fingers and creepy delivery people, you might be interested in taking a gander at NewspaperDirect’s PressDisplay.com Website. Touting “500 newspapers from 70 countries in 37 languages,” just as they appear in print, PressDisplay.com is now available free for a month for iPhone users. “The iPhone is the perfect mobile platform for PressDisplay.com because its rich user interface complements the advanced navigation and browsing capabilities of PressDisplay,” said Alexander Kroogman, CEO of NewspaperDirect. “But what is really exciting is that, for the first time, we can mobile-enable all of our dozens of SmartEdition publications, giving their subscribers anywhere/anytime access to their digital editions.” After your free month is up, plans range from $2.75 for a single paper (or “issue” as it’s called) to between $9.95 and $199.95 per month for various levels of access. PressDisplay.com → Read More
People who read while in the bathroom should be made to take a long walk off a short pier. I realize my opinions are controversial, but I apologize to no one, especially to Loo Read users. It’s a full table that you set up inside the bathroom to get some reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmatic done. And unlike half the stuff I write about nowadays, this is actually real. Not only real, mind you, but available in two different newspaper sizes, broadsheet ($192) and tabloid ($120). Tabloid’s probably best, since it leaves just enough room to process punny headlines like “Bats Not Enough.” Product Page [Lazybone via Nerd Approved] → Read More
Fasten your seat belts, ladies and germs, for the Wall Street Journal‘s Andy Kessler is going to tell you how to fix the so-called dying newspaper industry. Wait, as a matter of fact, it’s not dying. Newspapers, because they’re harder to copy and pirate à la music and video, will be here for a little while longer. Great! Why hop online to get all my news, from numerous sources, sources other than the biased liberal media elite, when I can hold some shoddy and unwieldy piece of newsprint in my hands, getting Grade F ink all over my hands? It’s just so very heaven. → Read More
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