An Editor and Publisher column by Ted Knutson detailed his voyage as a consumer of news from print, to online, to print again after realizing how much he was missing in the online news world.
To save money after losing a staff position, Knutson stopped buying newspapers and went for all his news online. A trend, he noted, that follows the "rest of the world," who are trading in print services for online. He received his news only online for months.
He put the kibosh on that plan after taking a writing test for a job and finding his result as being too "news poor."
Knutson said he was "satisfied" with the news he received online, but once he returned to print editions, he realized that he was reading more stories and longer stories each day.
The print newspaper, he said, had several advantages to the online version, and the main advantage is something that online publications also prize: time.
Online editions pride themselves on how quick and easy it is to stay up-to-date. Knutson ran across "news he didn't realize was there" leafing through the print edition, rather than "just looking at a handful of headlines on the home page of a newspaper's Web site."
Print advertising is more engaging and enjoyable than in the online version, Knutson said, another plus for print. Print ads don't detract from stories, unlike "drop-down" ads online, which can even steer readers away from the newspaper's webpage.
The sentimentalist in him appreciated the news in his hands every day. Knutson's action during a crisis period for print newspapers is no doubt appreciated by publishers, but it remains uncertain if he's starting his own trend.
Source: Editor and Publisher
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