Will newspapers survive in the digital world?  I already unsubscribed to the The Dallas Morning News because I can get all the information that I need from news Web sites.  It’s amazing to me that electronic readers are looking more like books.  I still love holding REAL books and perusing through a newspaper. But, that paper newspaper doesn’t give you automatic updates if breaking news happens.  Real newspapers are old news by noon.  That’s the problem.

New E-Newspaper Reader Echoes Look of the Paper

Newspaper companies have watched the technology closely for years. The ideal format, a flexible display that could be rolled or folded like a newspaper, is still years off, says E Ink. But it foresees color displays with moving images and interactive clickable advertising coming in only a few more years, according to Sriram K. Peruvemba, vice president for marketing for E Ink.

E Ink expects that within the next few years it will be able to create technology that allows users to write on the screen and view videos. At a recent demonstration at E Ink’s headquarters here, the company showed prototypes of flexible displays that can create rudimentary colors and animated images. “By 2010, we will have a production version of a display that offers newspaperlike color,” Mr. Peruvemba said.

Live! Primary Night Talking Web Heads (And Some You Can’t See)

 

 

 

There is no better sign that we have entered an era of total media convergence than the decision by the Washington Post and Newsweek to host live video broadcasts on the Web of the presidential primary results.One of the great benefits of being a print reporter is that you don’t have to vamp while trying to cover some event live when nothing is happening. Even with the immediacy of the Internet, when you can liveblog or near-live blog, you don’t have to update a post if there is nothing to add.

 

 Lisa Snedecker of Media Life Newspapers reports that citizen journalism, as it seems like a good idea to be able to cover more local news, newspapers are weary about trusting citizen journalists who might get the story, but worry if it will be a good and ethical story.

A most noble idea, citizen journalism

 

Because they’re coming from the local community, these citizen reporters can bring with them alliances with local political factions, and they’ll certainly have embedded views about the mayor and council and the most recent bond issue.

So while the paper may save on reporter salaries, it will have to have that many more editors to vet the stories and rewrite them for publication. That’s going to add substantial costs to their local reporting budgets. And even then they’ll have to work that much harder to keep mistakes out of the paper.

As papers increase local coverage, they’ll simply have that many more people out reporting–and that many more potential mistakes.