1.7 Lessons learnt
Newspapers have been struggling to get the biggest possible circulation since their beginnings. The lesson is easy: by realising the new possibilities their online presence enables, now they have an extraordinary possibility for increasing their reach and also creating an enjoyable reading experience.
Getting people to actually read the news seems like a fairly smart solution in the advertising game. Money has to be earned but the focus should remain clear along the way: best quality information from trustworthy sources. With the Web 2.0 bonuses included.
This is not to say that newspapers need to apply all types of interactive features to engage their readers. It is, however, unacceptable to simply use reprinted versions of texts featured in the print versions. Newspapers and magazines need to realize that the XXI century did indeed happen and that they should take advantage of the online tools instead of seeing them as technical obstacles.
No one is going to argue that staring at the computer screen provides a more enjoyable reading experience than sitting down with a broadsheet or a magazine. In this sense Katz was right. However, I like to think that the new developments have proven that newspapers (and magazines) online don’t suck.
By collaborating with other platforms, by providing share options, by creating extensive archives, by enabling downloads, and by using other tools (XML tags in the future?), newspapers are helping us to enhance the experience of reading the news on the hostile computer screen. It becomes at least a bit more enjoyable for us and profitable for the newspapers than would have been the case if the websites were simple reprints of the paper versions.
