How to save newspapers: Part MCXVVI

The Baltimore Examiner the latest paper to produce an e-edition, essentially a digital paper

http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/digitaleditions.aspx?tab=0&pid=e3e50bc7-52a3-49f1-86d7-baa629b1605f


consider the savings - no newsprint costs, no delivery charges (beyond e-mail infrastructure)

Take away those costs and newspapers - in this form - are viable

 

we've had this for about 9 months but for some reason don't promote it.

 

We have an e-edition. No one gets it.

But we've had two price increases in the last month (Sunday from $1 to $1.25 and daily from 35 cents to 50 cents), and our circ numbers are up from the same time last year.

 

Assuming those print advertisers will pay to be on PDFs, a pretty big assumption. And you have to remember, the Examiners have very small staffs -- mostly AP on local pro stuff.

 

People do not want an entire newspaper online, even three or four days a week and a real paper the other three or four.

They want a REAL newspaper with READABLE SUBSTANCE along with the other fluffy shit that gets put in there.

You can take a laptop to the bathroom but it's not the same. You can read a story on your iPhone in the car but it's not the same. You can print Lil' Johnny's baseball photo and send an 8x12 sheet of white paper to Grandma but it's not the same.

Yet this is what our industry will go to, partly because it believe it has to and partly because the finances are going to require it in some places.

 

It's a hell of a lot easier to read a story in "online form" than on a PDF, which is what these e-editions are. I think some newspaper people (OK, I know for a fact of a couple) are so egocentric they think people want/need to see the masthead or how the front page looks.

 

I agree that it's easier to read a story in online form than PDF, but if you can charge the same for ads as you do in the actual paper, then I think it may be viable for newspapers.

If the ad fees are the same but you're also saving money in all the costs of printing the paper and delivery.

But there's going to have to be a way to improve how you read it. There need to be options that allow you to jump to a certain section of the paper and also a way for a reader to select a certain story have that be the entire page, rather than that single view.

 

This is the best-looking e-edition I've seen (granted, I don't go around looking for e-papers) but I still say when news is presented on a Web format, it should be on a format that takes advantage of what the web offers. Packaging in a traditional newspaper sense makes no sense on the Web, unless it's done strictly as an extra, and the content is available in a Web-friendly version elsewhere.

 

We've had an e-edition for 3-4 years. When they told us about it, I said that I thought it was the best thing I'd heard of for an Internet newspaper, mainly because I read all of those small stories on page 14 that don't fit into a category, like most paper's Web sites have them. And they are hyperlinks everywhere. But nobody subscribes to the damn thing.

 

Same here. Worse yet, we allow people to download the PDF version FOR FUCKING FREE on our website.

This entire industry is run by morons.

 

Agreed. This digital edition is pretty damn good. Complete with the sound of turning pages. I'd certainly subscribe to something like this. It's easy to use, stories fit in the window of my little tiny monitor. I'm sold on this one. Nice work.

 

Not to mention space isn't an issue with e-editions, since all you're doing is creating PDF pages online without paper. I think you'll see this more often.