Hello there. You don’t know me.
I’ve never written a story here.
I’ve never received a byline.
I took a picture that was published once. I received a “Jake Ortman contributed to this story” on a couple of occasions. But for the most part, people who read the print edition of this paper don’t really know me.
However, if you’ve ever been to the Emerald’s Web site (www.dailyemerald.com), you might know me. I’ve been the online editor for the last three years here, and for the last year I have regularly written commentary that has never been published in the medium you see before you. I decided that the opinions I would express would best be expressed in a medium that allows the interactivity I wanted. I decided that I was going to focus my opinions on the world of technology and the Internet, and there was no better place to do it than on the medium I was discussing.
The limits presented by the print medium convinced me to publish online. But I’ll be the last person to say that newspapers are dead.
A lot of hoopla has been thrown around about how the newspapers are dead, and online is going to rule. I don’t believe it. Even though I love the Internet and like it’s leeway, I still don’t believe that newspapers are going away. Not for a second.
Think about it.
Is a newspaper or a computer easier to read? Newspapers are printed, at the very least, at 150 dots-per-inch, creating a fairly nice, sharp image (if the press doesn’t suck). Computer screens are hard on the eyes, usually topping out at 96 dots-per-inch, and computer monitors are never easy to look at for too long.
Which is easier to carry around (not counting the Sunday edition at some newspapers, as they will sometimes weigh more than a small laptop)? Newspapers, at their heaviest form, usually run around a pound. You can’t find a laptop anywhere that weighs a pound, and those little hand-held organizers that have Internet access are impossible to read.
Which is cheaper? Newspapers will cost you a couple quarters (or nothing, like the Emerald). Internet access isn’t cheap, and neither is the computer that you use to get that access.
Which is easier to use? The learning curve on a computer is far sharper than it is with a newspaper — “turn on, wait, dial up and logon, wait, get booted because you did it wrong, try again, get on, open Web browser, wait, try to remember the page you wanted, etc. …” versus “open, read, turn the page, read some more, etc. … . ”
Convenience? Newspapers hold that title, too. It’s much easier to carry a newspaper around and whip it out to look at it than it is to open up a laptop case, find a place to connect, and try to get online. That, and taking a laptop into the bathtub with you to read could be a little dangerous. The worst thing that would happen to a newspaper is that it might get wet. No biggie. Drop a laptop in the bathtub while you’re in it, and the last thing you should be worried about is the price of your laptop.
But online news does have its advantages, too. It offers advantages that will eventually make it the preferred media of choice for journalists — a title that is held now by the newspaper, in my opinion. As long as you know what you’re doing, the stories that go on the Web could be much more in-depth, have many more supplemental features, and don’t necessarily have to be written beginning-to-end like you would for a newspaper.
But please, no matter what you decide to do, don’t do it just because everyone else is doing it. Don’t make a Web site just for the sake of making a Web site. Don’t go into the real world with the idea that if you don’t get on the Web, you won’t survive. There’s way too much garbage (be it stupid Web pages, junk e-mail, or unnecessarily large downloads) out there clogging up the Internet. I’m going to take a bat to the next person that sends me an e-mail message saying that if I forward this message on to 50 of my friends, I’ll have a wonderful sex life, save a child from the cancer cells taking over his body or have Bill Gates give me a thousand dollars. It’s all crap and has given the Web a really bad reputation.
And that’s why you won’t see newspapers losing print readership because of their online counterparts. There’s just too much crap, and most readers won’t be a part of it.
Regardless, I’m a horribly addicted Internet junkie. You’ll most likely never see me in print again. So be it. I’ll see you online.