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)