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Hope for print?

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Dick Whitman, Sep 30, 2015.

  1. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    Paper books are on the rebound:

    Paper is back: Why 'real' books are on the rebound - GeekWire

    I can't imagine that there will be a correlation to journalism, where immediacy is vital. But it's interesting. This corresponds a little bit to my own reading habits, which have gravitated back to print more in the last few months, especially with books but also with newspapers and magazines.
     
  2. MisterCreosote

    MisterCreosote Well-Known Member

    No.

    On a related note, I can't believe how many journalists have been circulating this meme lately:

    [​IMG]

    That's fantastic, except those two statements are not the same at all. Not even close.
     
  3. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    I feel like Web sites have become increasingly difficult to read. The Sports Illustrated site is absolutely impenetrable. Pop-up ads have become an increasing problem at most news sites, it seems, and more and more sites are either fully pay sites or limit your reads each month. There are also very few good newspaper apps. The New York Times is one, and I was a dedicated reader of the NYT "Today's Paper" app for a long time. But ultimately, I went back to the Chicago Tribune print edition, because I couldn't stand being so shut out of local news.
     
  4. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    But, look. That's just me. Most people value "free" over almost anything else when it comes to their news consumption. I've also found that millennials like to severely limit their material possessions to just the basics, and a daily print newspaper cluttering up space certainly doesn't fit into that value system.
     
  5. doctorquant

    doctorquant Well-Known Member

    I'm still steaming over the WaPo's playing me for a digital subscription. I like to read some of their columnists and blogs, but often I run up on the monthly limit. So when they emailed me a $20-a-year offer for a digital subscription, I decided I'd pony up. Turns out the subscription was to their digital product, not a digital subscription to their paper. Which means that, natch, I get all the stuff I didn't really want and almost none of the stuff I thought I was paying for.
     
  6. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    The Times is the only one I've seen that does it right. It's the paper for that day, formatted as an app. It's pretty much perfect. The Chicago Tribune app is just PDFs of the day's paper, which I hate.
     
  7. doctorquant

    doctorquant Well-Known Member

    I don't know if this is true of all the McClatchey (sp?) papers or not, but the FW Star-Telegram's digital edition (which I get because I am a print subscriber) is very good. It looks just like the print version, but you can zoom in on whatever article/ad you want. And the navigation to/through sections is very good.

    The WaPo's product was fine technologically ... it's just that I feel like the victim of a bait-and-switch re: the content provided.
     
  8. MisterCreosote

    MisterCreosote Well-Known Member

    I will never, ever buy a print newspaper again unless I want one for a keepsake from some huge event. I suspect I'm not alone on that.

    And, yes, I'm fully aware that mentality would probably hasten print's demise, but it is entirely too cumbersome and inefficient for day-to-day news coverage.
     
  9. doctorquant

    doctorquant Well-Known Member

    You never find yourself in an airport, or alone at mealtime, looking for something to read? There have been times I'd have paid $10 for an actual newspaper.
     
    SpeedTchr likes this.
  10. Ace

    Ace Well-Known Member

    I think newspapers are easy to navigate (for the most part).

    Newspaper websites may have much more information, but it's oftne hard to find or navigate. You don't know what you are missing, and it can be an extraordinarily frustrating experience via mobile.
     
  11. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    I agree with Ace, particularly when it comes to agate. I'm actually tired of having to navigate one box score at a time. I like them all on one page. (I understand that newspapers are phasing them out. Sigh.) I like to bounce my eyes from the NASCAR field to the day's TV listings to the EPL standings to the NFL point spreads, all in about 30 seconds.
     
    BTExpress likes this.
  12. MisterCreosote

    MisterCreosote Well-Known Member

    That's why I use Google News almost exclusively. I also have the WaPo and USAT apps, which are fine, and a few email alert signups locally. Those more than do the trick. And they're all free.
     
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