Yesterday the e-book-oriented part of the blog circuit was buzzing with the news about the new electronic ink out of Siemens. But this morning I read not one mention of Siemens in a long Washington Post feature on the future of newspapers, including old information on e-ink. Oh well, isn’t this just another symptom of the crisis discussed in the article?
I’m a symptom, too. I pay only for a Sunday subscription, but get a paper all week long for free as part of a temporary promo offer–similar to one in effect last year. The Post is eager to keep up its circulation. Even at that, I’m tempted to cancel the weekday delivery to reduce my number of trips to the trash room.
Among the more clueful dinos
The scary thing, from a journalistic perspective, is that the Washington Post is probably infinitely more clueful about these matters than most newspapers, given the popularity of its Web site.
Hey, I’m not a cheapsake, just a value guy. I really would pay L Street as much as I used to, if only the Post would make available to me unlimited access to its archives and improve news alert, e-mail and RSS options for paying subscribers. I’d also welcome more news about Alexandria, VA., and about specialized topics of interest to me. The New York Times, with its CNET alliance, has the right idea. I’d like to see more of this kind of thing. What’s more, additional use of multimedia, well integrated with text, would also be useful.
Detail: Perhaps the recent rise in the price of newsprint is a blessing for the Post and other papers. Now they’ll have to take the Net a little more seriously, at least if they want to survive. Oh, the irony of the price gouging by the paper mills! That’s exactly the kind of thing that readers and advertisers fear from monopoly newspapers.
