Next generation of newspapers: You can't wrap fish in it
Next generation of newspapers: You can't wrap fish in it
NUSA DUA, Bali (JP): Reading a newspaper on the beach means
fighting the wind; reading on the train may disrupt the view of
other passengers. Things will change, however, thanks to a dream
that has nearly come true.
By the end of the decade, you will be able to read your
newspaper while driving, making coffee or cooking dinner. The
next generation of newspaper will be an affordable electronic
tablet. Weighing less that one kilogram, the tablet combines on-
line technology with the print media, retaining the best features
a newspaper offers its readers. Battery-powered, it requires very
little electricity.
"The problem with print is that when you're reading you cannot
do anything else, such as making coffee. We anticipate that by
having a human voice read the news to readers," tablet creator
Prof. Roger Fidler, an internationally recognized electronic
publishing visionary, said.
"It's not a substitute for radio, because reading text is not
the same as speaking," he added.
Fidler, who has spent more than 34 years in the newspaper
business as a journalist, designer and technologist, unveiled his
electronic newspaper concept at a one-day gathering organized by
the Kompas daily in cooperation with The Jakarta Post last week.
Last month he was a speaker at AdAsia '95 in Nusa Dua, Bali. His
presentation at the congress was based on his book
'Mediamorphosis: Understanding New Media' which will be published
by Pine Forge Press next year.
"One of the most important things in a newspaper is
portability, that you can take it with you anywhere. It has to be
simple; we don't need to have instructions to read a newspaper.
So we need a simple medium that is immediately understandable to
people and that's what we're looking for. It has to be affordable
if it is going to be an alternative for ink-on-paper," said
Even though the electronic tablet incorporates elements of
personal computers, the device will have much more in common with
ordinary paper than a laptop.
With the tablet, computer processors will be onboard, but they
will not be apparent. Just as people don't think about the
computers in their instant cameras when they take pictures,
owners of tablet appliances won't give much thought to the
computer processors behind the display when they read and
interact with tablet editions of publications, he explained.
Fidler conceived the idea in 1981 when he first saw the active
matrix panel display. He wrote about his concept and created the
first model the same year, but knew it would be 20 years before
the reality could be reached.
His tablet project was sponsored originally by Knight Ridder,
one of the five largest newspaper groups in the U.S.
"I've been with Knight Ridder for 21 years," said Fidler, who
founded the Knight Ridder Graphics Network (now KRT Graphics),
the world's first computer graphics network for newspapers, in
1983. He went on to develop PressLink, the first on-line news
paper computer service in 1985.
In 1991 he attended Colombia University on a scholarship to
research his book. He then convinced Knight Ridder in 1992 to
establish a laboratory in Bolder, but in July of this year Knight
Ridder decided to concentrate on the Internet. Fidler decided to
teach at the University of Colorado, working closely with other
universities and other technology companies to produce his
digital newspaper.
"We are not talking about killing newspapers or magazines.
We're talking about evolving the media in digital form. It has to
be built on the strengths of the print media," Fidler stressed.
"Electronics and print media will coexist for a very long,
long time. Ultimately, though, the electronic media will become
the dominant form," he added.
Fidler is convinced electronic media will triumph because
since 55 percent of the cost of print media is for paper and
delivery, both prices will rise while the price for digital
drops.
"It's interesting to note that in the 1980s there were popular
talks about less paper, yet today we're using more paper per
person than before. The reason is the computer screen is not a
suitable replacement for ink on paper. Most people still print
their document on paper to read," he said.
"Computers are like TV screens. If you notice how documents
have evolved since the written words emerged 6,000 years ago, the
preferred form has been the vertical orientation. Even the
scrolls were designed as pages. To have a successful alternative,
we have to have a vertical form," he said, explaining why he
chose the tablet form.
Fidler is keenly aware that "image has become more important
than substance," and that digital print media can blend the
written word, still images, video clips and sound to radically
transform and enhance traditional newspapers.
"The amount of video will depend on the amount of memory
capacity of a card, so we'll have to plan the newspapers based on
the total memory requirement. There will have to be editorial
decisions on what to include," he said.
Fidler dismissed the fear that advertising will have no place
in the digital media.
"In our model the advertising continues to be the primary
source of revenue for publishers. In this model the advertising
cannot be zapped. By juxtaposing advertising with the editorial
in a click, you're always exposed to the advertising. On TV it's
easier to skip the advertising," he argued.
Digital newspapers will be distributed through available
international networks and subscribers will download the day's
edition on a card at a newsstand. Connections will be available
everywhere and the card can be rewritten a hundred thousand
times, Fidler said.
"And if one subscribes to more than one newspaper, one can
obtain a second or third card," he added.
A typical blank card has 25 megabytes to 50 megabytes of
memory, but that will increase to between 500 megabytes and a
gigabit by the next century.
"The price will be very low," promised Fidler.
Today the price of a tablet is between US$850 and $1,000 but
early next decade in will be between $100 and $1,000.
"It's like buying a VCR. You can have a low-price one, or a
very expensive one, depending on the features you want."
Integral
Fidler said individually tailored information delivered
electronically on demand has great appeal."But, to assume that
personal information retrieval services or interactive television
news will one day replace newspapers edited and packaged by
professional journalists is to confuse their distinctly different
roles," he maintained.
"Newspapers and the printed words have become so integral in
our institutional structures that it is difficult to imagine how
modern governments, businesses and social systems would function
without them."
Fidler is optimistic that flat-panel devices like his tablet
will have a vast number of practical applications in the 21st
century beyond displaying digital editions of newspapers,
magazines and books.
"They are likely to be used by students and teachers to access
current editions of interactive textbooks and course materials;
by factory workers as electronic clipboards and manuals; by
executives for viewing and distributing memos and reports; by
salespersons for presentations and order entry; by attorneys to
interact with depositions and documents in court; by repair
persons and installers to access up-to-the-minute schematics and
animated instructions; by public speakers as prompters and
notepads; by stock brokers and commodities traders to process
orders; in nearly every other situation where paper is used to
day for storing, displaying, capturing and distributing
information that requires frequent updating or is of an ephemeral
nature," he concluded. (lem)