I’ve repeatedly questioned the top-down, Pentagon-style journalism practiced by the Washington Post, which loves to toss five-pound Sunday newspapers our way–whether we readers want obese papers or not. In fact, the bulk of the Post is Complaint Number One among the readers. Gen. Michael Getler, the Post ombudsman-PR man, keeps on blowharding that the real solution is good, hard news. Who’s against that? But a sheer brute force approach–more five-pound papers–is like threatening to bomb Vietnam back to the stone age.
Others agree with me. Colin, a contributor to MobileReads, enthusiastically pointed me this morning to a MobileRead item (based on an MSNBC story frpm the Denver Business Journal):
A small start-up company called Treeless Systems LLC which is currently seeking partners to invest in a flexible computer system equipped with a screen that can be folded or rolled up like a broadsheet newspaper. Like many other near-future display technologies we’ve heard of lately, the final product will use a reflective display that doesn’t require backlighting.
According to CEO Dave Lester, Treeless System’s product would allow readers to customize their newspapers in ways print newspapers can’t, such as readers selectively subscribing to different sections of the newspaper — for instance only sports and business! The device also could convert text to speech, enlarge text portions, and enable live-video footages…
Hype? Could well be. As the actual owner of a Librie with E Ink and rotten screen contract, I’m all too aware of the extravagant promises made in new areas of technology. Still, sooner or later within the next decade, the above vision will most likely be a reality. In fact, the vision of customization is exactly what clueful people in the newspaper business have laid out again and again. It doesn’t take a fancy display for customization to happen in this age of customized e-mail and RSS feeds. Why doesn’t Gen. Getler understand the possibilities of a genuine hearts-and-minds approach as opposed to a “stone age” one? I stand by my earlier recommendation; the Post badly needs to augment the General’s dated thinking with columns by a new media ombudsman.
