by Paul Gibson
Home >> Paper vs. Digital: The Eternal Debate
You certainly can not deny the convenience, timeliness and even presentation of digital presentations and convenience of audiovisual effects for news stories on the web. But in much the same way, you can not steal the tradition of reading the newspaper with your morning coffee.
Call it stubbornness if you like, but there is something to be said for the smell and touch of a newly printed newspaper. The smell of the ink, the size of the letters, the pictures you can move back and forth and away from your eyes as you like.
I was thinking about all of this as I observed the local newspaperman selling newspapers at the entrance to the motorway in my last visit to Chicago. How can they still make money?
Well, for one thing, the old adage: “any publicity is good publicity� certainly rings true today. Businesses can not limit themselves to just one form of advertising, but rather sign up for any and all of them. Sure you can post a company banner at a website and receive clicks, but you are not going to see anyone printing off coupons or special offers from their computer screens, let alone go through the trouble of printing it off to show their friends at any given point in time (the way you can with a newspaper).
Well, the age of digital advertising is just about to reach an exciting climax with the latest wave of mobile advertising. So as the digital advertising market continues to grow, the age of newspaper advertising would appear to be in full recession. But is that really so?
Long time spent in front of a computer screen causes eye strain, contributes to partial loss of sight capacity and even can induce strong headaches. In fact, many of these dangers are either avoided or non-existent when reading a paper newspaper. However, the same argument could be made from reading the newspaper while travelling – this may lead to dizziness and light-headedness.
Many analysts point to the fact that newspapers have decreased circulation since the dawn of the internet age, but that all depends on the way you look at it. Most if not all of them have an online version which has not only decreased circulation but actually increased the demand and market share for these publications.
Beginners
Newspapers are easy to read.
But these days, digital documents are replacing paper newspapers. People like to read the news on their computers or mobile phones. Advertising is coming to the mobile phone.
Will newspapers survive?
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Posted on http://www.weeklyletter.com at 2007-10-30 09:06:00 +0100
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Hi everyone: In my opinion we live in a world with so much information you can’t to include in a normal day: newspapers, radio programs, TV informatives…We have to discriminate information. I think it’s very similar in the case of the newspaper and digital webs. You’ve to choose the moment and what you’re looking for. It’s ridiculous to be all time in front of a computer’s screen and in the other way it’s very usefull to obtain quick information and to extend some notice you’re interested in.
We can look at some of the newspaper’s main page, it indicate and invite us to read differents points of view or articles in their own web. It can make compatible, we can only choose the moment.
Best regards,
Javier
Hi everyone.
I don´t really think internet news replece the newspapers.Even though the the sales has already decreased is due to the trend that everyone prefer surfing on the web while are cheking for something different rather than paying for a newspaper.There are some advantages about surfing on the web checking the news, at least you can explore as many newpaper as you want and compare them while it is not worth to pay for more than one newspaper.
It is also true that in case newspaper companies keep decreasing their sales might happen an employment regulation and this measure will never be allowed for the society and goverment. Goverments tends to encourage the companies to increase the number of employers so that if this important industry move down many people would go to the dole.
Greetings
Hi !
I like to read on paper. I love color paper, books, magazines and newspapers.
Perhaps, new generations will be more used reading digital newspapers.
One of the problems to be solved, is a digital screen specially designed easy reading and easy to carry with you. And we will receive our digital newspaper on the email.
Regards
Anna
Hi
The ‘paper or digital’ debate seems to exist among those of us who grew up reading the printed media and may highlight the difficulties we have adapting to the new digital world. I can use digital, but prefer paper because it’s what I was brought up with. Today’s children and teenagers, however, won’t have to deal with this issue. They are the real digital generation and the extent to which digital media ‘takes over’ from paper will really only be seen when they have become the adult professionals of our society.
That said, I could be wrong!
You can’t digitally replace The Times Crossword accompanied by a strong white coffee and a decently unhealthy doughnut.
Hello Paul,
I also prefer reading on paper because it is more confortable for my eyes, on paper I don’t get any reflections or glances..
I have a lot of books at home, but on the other hand I have far many ebooks which I only read on my laptop so far.
I am after a Sony ebook reader that looks really well, but the screen is not foldable …yet!
So let’s give it one or two more years and I think that ebook readers would be less anoying on the eyes, easy to carry and all that.
Regards,
Cristina
Thank you for all your comments. I was jus thinking about some of the advantages of each of these:
Foldability or ability to be folded in half is probably very important for traditional book readers, as Cristina points out. Donal points out the ability to write on it, which we can do now on our computer screens, but it’s just not the same is it!
Joe makes an excellent point! Maybe we are talking about a debate that is only pertinent to our generation. As computers and technology developm I suppose it will be more comfortable to wear glasses that are covered to read directly. I don’t know though. Human nature never seems to change.
The fact that technology can break very easily and is so expensive is a major drawback. If you drop your paperback on the pavement, no big deal. If you drop your digalitized e-book that is probably worth 10 times as much, well, you are in for an unpleasant surprise!
Thanks again for all your comments.
Paul