Take Your Laptop With You to the "Reading Room"
Today's post is courtesy of Audrey Reed, editor of Pepperdine's weekly newspaper, Graphic.
The New York Times changed its Web site on April 3, and the resulting product is much more reader friendly. As Slate writer Jack Shafer said (http://www.slate.com/id/2139278/), he's cancelling his subscription to the New York Times print edition, and saving the 600+ bucks his subscription costs. He advises others to do the same, and with the money saved people should buy a larger monitor.
The Times is arguably the county's leading newspaper, so when they do something, the entire field takes note. I suppose we, as "print"
journalists, should be getting used to hearing these sort of comments from Web-savvy readers, and begin to think more like the Star in terms of how we present our stories. (Remember, Gretchen Macchiarella. of the Ventura Star said that the Stars’ stories are moving toward first being published on the Web and then in print.)
I think it'll be interesting to see which school of advertising thought will prevail. On one hand, there's the idea that plopping ads on the site and having no subscription fees will produce higher profits. The other side is to have a subscription fee (which also requires a login), but then there's no to little advertising. I'm rooting for the free access with ads, even though that means I'll be subjecting myself to blatant and non-so blatant advertising. I think when it comes down to it, having to remember one more password and user name combination and logging in to one more site will eventually turn away people.
And then there's the issue of what to read in the bathroom now that Web sites are picking up steam ... Call me old fashioned but, I think I will always find laptop use in the restroom gross.
--
Audrey E. Reed
Editor in Chief, the Graphic
Freelance Writer
c. 310.498.1077
o. 310.506.4314
http://audrey.e.reed.googlepages.com
The New York Times changed its Web site on April 3, and the resulting product is much more reader friendly. As Slate writer Jack Shafer said (http://www.slate.com/id/2139278/), he's cancelling his subscription to the New York Times print edition, and saving the 600+ bucks his subscription costs. He advises others to do the same, and with the money saved people should buy a larger monitor.
The Times is arguably the county's leading newspaper, so when they do something, the entire field takes note. I suppose we, as "print"
journalists, should be getting used to hearing these sort of comments from Web-savvy readers, and begin to think more like the Star in terms of how we present our stories. (Remember, Gretchen Macchiarella. of the Ventura Star said that the Stars’ stories are moving toward first being published on the Web and then in print.)
I think it'll be interesting to see which school of advertising thought will prevail. On one hand, there's the idea that plopping ads on the site and having no subscription fees will produce higher profits. The other side is to have a subscription fee (which also requires a login), but then there's no to little advertising. I'm rooting for the free access with ads, even though that means I'll be subjecting myself to blatant and non-so blatant advertising. I think when it comes down to it, having to remember one more password and user name combination and logging in to one more site will eventually turn away people.
And then there's the issue of what to read in the bathroom now that Web sites are picking up steam ... Call me old fashioned but, I think I will always find laptop use in the restroom gross.
--
Audrey E. Reed
Editor in Chief, the Graphic
Freelance Writer
c. 310.498.1077
o. 310.506.4314
http://audrey.e.reed.googlepages.com
posted by Ken Waters | 1:56 PM
2 Comments:
While I still find using a laptop in the bathroom kind of crude, I'm getting used to the idea of it happening. People are so connected to their computers these days that they often can't go more than 2 seconds without it. Just the other day, my roommate took his laptop into our bathroom because he had been watching a video and didn't want to pause it. It's getting to the point that this could become a phenomenon. I know plenty of people who use their cell phones in the restroom and even a few who have televisions hooked up inside their bathrooms. If other forms of technology can break the bathroom barrier, why not laptops?
I will :) Thanks for your valuable advice
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