« Is your Web content gregarious? | Main | From Every Crisis, A Learning Opportunity »
January 4, 2006
Mine Shaft Gap
This morning, I took the long, cold walk down my slippery driveway to retrieve the morning newspaper. I unfolded it and read the Page One headline above the fold: 12 miners found alive.
What a different story I found when I turned on the “Today” show a few minutes later.
Certainly, my newspaper couldn’t have had the latest news by the time the paper rolled off the press and into a delivery truck. That sort of thing happens every day. But that’s just it – by the time you trundle down your driveway to pick up the paper, it’s recyclable, old, yesterday’s news.
Newspapers (paper) can’t compete in a 24/7 world. You can dress ’em up, load them with evergreens and opinions, but you can’t get the latest news to my doorstep in a vehicle that doesn’t include having me turn on my computer, get on the Web and find your Web site.
What’s the new vehicle? Handhelds and phones work just fine. When my carrier got lazy over the holidays and decided that delivering the paper was optional, I grabbed my cell phone and read the news while eating my Frosted Mini Wheats. It wasn’t my paper’s news, though.
When will our friends on the ink side get it together? Soon, I hope.
Posted by Rich Sharp at January 4, 2006 12:49 PM