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Bringing Print Media Online
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12131 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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3 / 1994 |
2,342 Words |
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Melinda Sink
Melinda Sink is a free-lance writer living in Denver,
Colorado. |
The time has come that editors, publishers, writers--all those involved in the print media--are no longer ignoring the rapid growth of technology. Online services--computer networks that offer magazine and newspaper text graphics (as well as interactive options)--are becoming widely available.
From the Tribune Company's Chicago Online (which was the first local service available nationwide in May 1992) to the New York Times (joining the America Online computer service earlier this year), dozens of newspapers and magazines around the country have begun to offer electronic supplements and variations of their publications.
Coinciding with this online boom is an effort to change communications law. Vice President Al Gore has put communications reform at the top of his agenda, attempting to break down the legal barriers that have long separated the telephone and cable television industries. The precedent for this was the decision handed down by federal Judge Harold Greene in July 1991 that allows the seven Baby Bells to pursue local roles in the information market. For the moment, though, just how much competitive power the Bell companies will have is uncertain.
Also uncertain is what impact this new medium--in addition to radio, television, newspapers, and magazines--will have on both producers and consumers of the print media. Analogies to Gutenberg and the first printing press are rampant when the topic of electronic media comes up--as well as discussions of how the print media survived the inventions of television and radio. "When Gutenberg had invented the printing press, he couldn't go out and open a bookstore immediately," Bill Allman, senior writer for U.S. News & World Report and "sysop" for U.S. News Online, points out. "It took a long time before people realized what the technology could be used for and began printing newspapers."
No end in sight
As companies embrace the new technology, the most obvious concern is the possible end of print journalism. Yet, despite the decline in newspapers as a mass medium for at least the past three decades, many experts agree that print media will remain alongside the electronic media. "Until they design display terminals for the bathroom, people will keep reading magazines and newspapers in print," Allman says, only half-jokingly. "It's still more comfortable to read a magazine because you can take it to bed with you and get cozy or go anywhere with it at anytime." Conversely, he adds that
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