my name is mwd

It’s quite common now when reading a newspaper you’ll be instructed to head over to the website to get more details, or more info. The iPad makes this quite easy to fit in with your read:

Much more convenient than a desktop/laptop, and easier to read than the iPhone. But it does really beg the question at what point do you wonder why am I reading the paper version if it’s just a bunch of references to online material?

I’m certainly convinced there are two modes to dead tree media: there’s your daily info that you consume to keep up to date, and there’re items you’ll make “quality” time to consume. I’m told that most readers of the Economist, for instance, will book a slot in their weekend to read it. It becomes an event in their week, almost a hobby I guess. Even at the trashier end, like with MCN here, I consume it as an activity, not in passing – it’s a nice way to rest for half an hour or so on the weekend.

If we go along with those two strata, then I think the second one can get away with this model of “read the paper, and link to web for details” model, but the former can’t. The iPad (and whatever devices will follow) are a great way to take in information, but if I’m just trying to catch up on the day’s events I don’t want to be hoping back and forth between media. On the other hand, if I’ve already set aside time to read a paper thing, as I do with MCN and Monocle (reading both of those probably puts me in a very limited demographic somewhere :), I don’t mind the occasional reach out of my iPad (or in this case, my companies iPad) to get some content that the paper edition either couldn’t fit in, or in the case of something like video, couldn’t carry.

I certainly don’t think print media is dead, far from it. Paper is a great way to deliver and consume certain content. But I do think there’s coming a time where the idea that if you have to deliver daily information then printing millions of bits of paper that will be thrown away as soon as they’re read as the prefered way to do it will become somewhat of an anachronism.