Skip to main content

The Future of the Newspaper

Just finished reading this from the BBC and it got me thinking. There is a larger story unfolding here, but maybe in a smaller media choice. So we have seen the traditional UK broadsheets becoming less... well broad as the Telegraph and now the Guardian shrink down to a more convenient size for reading in trains.

Of particular interest was the future vision of a Minority Report syle news paper. Far fetched you might say but a recent revelation from Fujitsu may mean that such a vision is not as fantastical as some would believe. The creation of electronic paper brings new media delivery a reality within the next 10 years.

Trends in Japan would suggest that peoples attitude towards mobile readers is changing significantly. This posting on Wired, on a Novel Use of Mobiles, from back in March this year demonstrates a desire to have more than just a phone in our hand, and not a PDA either.

However all that said there are usability issue to be considered and solved if the ideas are to really fly. A very intersting background piece in TheFeature states the case for usability very clearly and is well worth a read.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Crisis Connections

What the flood situation in Thailand has shown once again is the power of social networks to fill the void of communication. In recent times the role of Facebook, Twitter, and Blackberry messenger has been shown in good and bad light.  The same methods that released the Arab Spring have also been used to coordinate the London Riots . Love them or loathe social networks are here to stay and what the floods show is how they keep people connected.  Some will say there should be no communication void if central government is on top of its game, but with a situation that can change so rapidly, and over such a large area the traditional press certainly struggle to keep the public up to date. Twitter and Facebook have been saviours for those of us outside Thailand at this time.  With roving reporters and connected people like Patee Sarasin and Jetrin out doing and tweeting many more people are kept up to date. Equally useful is the ability to time shift news updates through TV ch
Post a Comment
Read more

Voice puts the pinch on Content

Content providers in Thailand are struggling to stay afloat after a restructuring of the revenue sharing between the mobile operators and themselves. Firms like Advanced Info Service (AIS) have been offering content on their 2.5G networks here for sometime. This has spawned a number of content partners to spring up. The previous arrangement were of the order of 65% to 80%. The new arrangement sets a 50:50 split of the revenue between proivder and operator. The operators say that this is due to the operating costs of their networks and that up to now this has been a trial offering. It smells more like a knee jerk reaction to falling revenues from voice. When will the market wake up and realize that paying for voice is dead. The secret to the success of operators going forward will be in the successful channeling of content, where voice is but another type of content. This is a worrying trend. If the pinch continues then I see that most of the content partners will not survive long. This
1 comment
Read more

SKY New Zealand vaults into the 21st Century

New Zealand is a pretty country but it's also pretty slow in coming forward in many areas. It has it fair share of innovation but some parts of everyday life are still if not 20 years behind but at least 10...until now. Sky in the UK has made use of user driven options through handset interaction for some time, push the red button, Sky NZ still does not support this type of service. But this is where competition shows its value, it forces natural monopolies to innovate, and let's be honest Sky TV is a natural monopoly here by being the only digital TV service (which you have to use if you want to get a decent reception so Freeview doesn't count [yet]). Now Telecom has tied up with TiVo as the sole distributor in New Zealand Sky has had to play catch up, their response iSky. First impressions, given that the full service isn't launched yet, are good. Finally after years of me seeing other countries extending TV into the computer world with the likes of Yahoo -> TiVo
Post a Comment
Read more