TIMES READER: “A GREAT NEXT STEP” IN NEWSPAPER DEVELOPMENT?
* The New York Times and Microsoft have recently launched Times Reader in
beta. Could the application improve the prospects of e-editions?
by Rebeca Cliffe, Associate
A product of collaboration between Microsoft and The New York Times, the
Times Reader was launched recently in beta prior to its official release
in 2007. The new electronic edition software aims to provide a digital
edition of the New York Times that preserves the look and feel of the
print edition, while also offering features that capture the benefits of
reading news online. The beta version is limited to users of Windows XP
and registered users of NYTimes.com, and can be used free of charge to
access NY Times content with the exception of TimesSelect, the newspaper’s
subscription-only package. The reader software is built on the Windows
Presentation Foundation (WPF) library and will be included in Microsoft’s
next version of Windows, Vista.
The Times Reader aims to capture a mix of the online and offline reading
experiences. The Reader uses the same font styles as the traditional
newspaper, and displays content in columns, capturing the traditional
‘look and feel’, which has been key to the newspaper’s brand. Many of the
features offered by Times Reader are similar to those offered by digital
edition vendors such as Zinio, Olive and NewsStand (the latter of which
New York Times has invested in). However, the novelty of this software is
that it is dynamic rather than static, enabling the page layout to change
to fit smaller screens and devices. The Reader resizes and reflows
content (including images) to best fit the screen or the user’s
preferences. The issue of readability of text on smaller devices has been
an important factor in the limited uptake of digital editions (the New
York Times e-edition, for example, currently has 5,676 daily and 4,912
Sunday subscriptions). The new software will allow NYT executives to
better attract advertisers to the digital edition - ads are automatically
re-sized according to the dimensions of the page, allowing them to be
consistently viewed at their best. There are also a number of interactive
features that it is hoped will enhance the reading experience. For
example, users can highlight text, add a note, and e-mail it to a friend
or colleague, as well as being able to organise notes and annotations by
topic. Users can also search to retrieve relevant Times articles.
Some would argue that newspapers should focus on exploiting the potential
of the web rather than, as expressed by blogger Jeff Jarvis of
BuzzMachine.com, attempting to “grasp desperately at a past that’s
disappearing” with digital editions. The general point, that newspapers
need a new outlook for a new age, is a valid one. Recent comments by
Arnaud Lagardere, chief executive of French magazine and newspaper
publisher Lagardere, that he sees little future for newspapers beyond the
next ten years, have underlined the pessimism surrounding the traditional
newspaper publishing model in both Europe and the US. Yet digital
editions have only ever really been marketed as an add-on to the print and
online newspaper, and it is important to recognise that they do have a
discrete role to play, being particularly useful for readers who want to
access their home newspaper when abroad for example. Meanwhile according
to Arthur Sulzberger, Chairman of The New York Times Company, Times Reader
is “a great next step in melding the readability and portability of the
newspaper with the interactivity and immediacy of the web”. The move is
certainly a step towards increasing the appeal of digital editions, but
there continues to be debate about how readers will want to consume news
on the move in future. Despite advances made by software such as the
Times Reader, readers may still prefer to print out longer articles to
read on the move rather than view them on a mobile device such as a tablet
PC. ‘Click and carry’ services, such as that recently launched by the UK’s
Daily Telegraph newspaper, may prove more accessible, at least until
technologies for displaying digital content on mobile devices reach a
‘tipping point’. The Times Reader does not bring us to that point, but it
is certainly an important project that shows a determination to explore
the possibilities of the digital age.
© Electronic Publishing Services (EPS)
EPS is an Outsell, Inc. company
From the EPS archive
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Telegraph “Click and Carry”: Project “Byte” gives something to chew on,
EPS Insights, 18 September 2006 ::
http://www.epsltd.com/accessArticles.asp?articleType=1&updateNoteID=1562
Exact Editions: What will magazines look like online, EPS Insights, 18
May 2006 ::
http://www.epsltd.com/accessArticles.asp?articleType=1&updateNoteID=1954
EmPRINT: A new digital edition format, EPS Insights, 5 April 2005 ::
http://www.epsltd.com/accessArticles.asp?articleType=1&updateNoteID=1562
Is the writing on the wall?: The future of digital newspapers, EPS Focus
Report, June 2006 ::
http://www.epsltd.com/accessArticles.asp?articleType=3&reportID=86
Related links
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Microsoft :: http://www.microsoft.com
The New York Times :: http://www.nytimes.com
Zinio :: http://www.zinio.com
Olive :: http://www.olivesoftware.com
NewsStand :: http://www.newsstand.com
BuzzMachine.com :: http://www.buzzmachine.com
Largardere :: http://www.largardere.com
The Daily Telegraph :: http://www.telegraph.co.uk
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