As newspapers move into the digital era, what shouldn't we forget about them?

What I think people often disregard is that the newspaper is a highly evolved browsing medium for a great deal of information. It is there to provide a slice of time for people. It is not just an ink-on-paper product. I think getting people to think about a newspaper as an electronic product has been difficult because there is such attachment to the idea of the printing press. My argument has been that the newspaper is much more than that. It is a way of organizing and delivering information.

One of the strengths of the newspaper is its ability to expose you to things you didn't know you were interested in until you encounter it or information that you really need to know something about even though you might not have thought about it in advance. Within a newspaper there is always a certain element of serendipity and surprise that is what we've come to expect. When people are reading a newspaper and turning the pages they are much more receptive to what they encounter both editorially and with advertising than with any other medium. The Web tends to be a very directed reading environment where people tend to go to get specific bits of information and tend not to want to be diverted and tend not to read on the Web in a leisure reading environment. Whereas a newspaper, while it can be used for directed reading, tends to be read in more of a leisure reading environment, so those are all features that we are trying to preserve.

It sounds like you are trying more to preserve the newspaper rather than change it.

Yes. I think there is a mistaken belief that we need to erase everything from the past and start over again. In my own research, when I was writing my book, Mediamorphosis, it was very clear that humans tend not to do that. We tend to build on the past and in fact we prefer to have new media replicate older media for some period of time, although we tend to keep the old media around for quite a while. The format we developed preserves what I believe are the strengths of a printed newspaper and the familiar characteristics of a print newspaper, but blends the more compelling features of the Web with it and to some extent of the television.

You are working on a prototype of an electronic edition for the LA Times to be viewed on a PC tablet. How has that being developed?

Adobe was funding our research early on to pursue work-flow issues and developing a format using PDF that would allow for graphically rich and typographically sophisticated presentation. We had already developed an early prototype with Adobe. Two years ago I was at a conference in Los Angeles and had the opportunity to meet with some of the senior executives at the Los Angeles Times to show them the prototype. They were just at a point where they were exploring alternatives for them. They were not entirely happy with the Web site alone for delivering their content. They were looking at something that would be an alternative and would allow them to take more of a leadership role. When they saw the prototype they became quite interested. They helped to sponsor our further development on the format that would be tailored to their needs with the understanding that the format that we were developing would not be an exclusive format for the LA Times, but in fact could be used by any newspaper that was interested in pursuing an electronic edition.

Are they planning on actively offering this to their subscribers any time soon?

They have a couple of things going on. One, the prototype of the electronic edition of the newspaper is still a prototype. We've been working with them on developing the business model and a plan for a pilot sometime in the not too distant future to allow us to get it out into the marketplace to see how people respond to it in a live environment.

We've also been developing a spin off of the electronic edition that we are calling news books. Taking the series they do, often running over 5 to 6 days, and turning those essentially into electronic books within what we are referring to as the Kent format now, so that people can become familiar with that format for navigating the newspaper. These news books are going to be going live very soon, so we are not waiting for the electronic edition of the newspaper to be able to do that.

What considerations did you make for advertisers in the development of this format?

A large part of our consideration in this format is providing an advertising friendly environment where there are a number of different approaches being done today for electronic editions of newspapers . . . . Our approach has really been to first look at enhancing the reading experience to make sure that the electronic edition provides a reading experience comparable to that of ink on paper, so it is comfortable to read on the tablet device. Of course what we have done is reduced the pages to a magazine-size page, so that it fits on the tablet display or actually fits on any computer display. A portrait orientation on the tablet feels more like reading perhaps a magazine.

With advertising, what we've looked at is how do we add value for the advertiser. The obvious thing for example, is every page in an electronic format on the tablet can be in full color. Whereas in a newspaper, the color positions are determined by the capacity of the printing press, so many pages within the newspaper are black and white. Of course a newspaper in print charges significantly more for a color ad than a black and white. In the electronic form there would really be no difference in price.

Would you prefer reading the electronic newspaper format developed by Roger Fidler or will you always stick to the print format? Share your thoughts in the Generation TV Watercooler

That is only one level of added value. What we are looking at is ads on one level that are in an advertising environment that can give the advertiser an opportunity to have multiple layers of advertising within the context of their ads. If a person is interested in more information on that ad they simply touch the ad and can either get another layer of information within that ad or be able to hyper link to a full-page ad. All of this is something that would be done offline.

Additionally, we are looking at adding video and audio capabilities and features that give it a more multimedia type of presentation. The ability to add forms, so if a person wants to enter a contest or to be able to interact with the advertiser in some way that that information can be captured and stored in the outbox of that person's e-mail application and sent the next time they got back online.

How much does one of these PC tablets go for? Have you thought about pricing for an electronic newspaper edition?

The price range on the tablet PCs is running somewhere between $1700 and $2700. They run from anywhere from about $200 to $400 more than a comparable lap top, but you have to add to the fact that you are also getting a pen-based system that none of the other lap tops have, so that is what you are paying extra for at this point.

Looking at electronic editions of newspapers, we are looking at the single copy price that will be comparable to printed copy of a national edition of a newspaper. The subscription price we anticipate would be significantly lower with the idea that it would be much more appealing for a person to subscribe to the electronic edition and to have a habit of reading it electronically. We haven't set a price yet for the subscription. The price will probably work out something closer to the equivalent of $.25 or $.30 a copy.

Why do you think consumers might be ready for a newspaper in this particular electronic format?

I think at this point people have become accustom to dealing with electronic documents more today than did even in the mid-90s. The tablet has been improvised for increased mobility and comfort of reading. People are also dealing with a great many documents today and a vast majority are becoming digital documents. The tablet I think will create an interest in having packaged content that can be easily read on the tablet, everything from ebooks to magazines and so on.

I think newspapers will be one of the products that they will want to be able to have on the tablet. With our format, we tried to take the technology out of electronic publishing to make it a reading experience that will be comfortable for people to read and will be enjoyable for them to read. From our useable studies we've done here it seems to have accomplished that. People don't spend very much time reading stories on the Internet at this point on the Web. It's typically used for quick hits on breaking news stories, but it is not a comfortable leisure reading environment. At the same time we are finding people who no longer are really comfortable with a printed newspaper for a variety of reasons.

I think what we are finding from our studies here is that suddenly people who are on the go a great deal and who read newspapers today will find this appealing because their subscription can be fulfilled from wherever they are and it provides them with a product that they can read comfortably and they are familiar with. The added features that we are looking at make it more compelling and more Web-like, yet still within the context of a digital document. We also think we may entice people who either are occasionally readers of newspapers or nonreaders of printed newspaper today to read the electronic editions. Potentially the circulation could grow, particularly outside of a publisher's own market area.

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About the Author

Stephen Warley has made a career out of assessing the future direction of television. From producing for CBS News and CNBC to working as a project manager for interactive media agencies like ThirdAge and Osprey Communications, he has gained an insider's view as to where tomorrow's content and business opportunities lie in the video media industries. He is currently an MBA candidate at Fordham University with concentrations in media management and finance. He can be contacted at swarley@tvspy.com