Annals of Library and Information Studies Vol. 58, March 2011, pp. 55-62
E-newspapers and e-news services in the electronic age: an appraisal
K. C. Panda 1 and Dillip K Swain 2
1Dean (Faculty of Arts), Professor& Head, PG Department of Library and Information Science, Sambalpur University, Jyotivihar, Burla-768019, Sambalpur, Odisha, E-mail: [email protected]
2Assistant Librarian, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology University, Bhubaneswar-751024, Odisha, E-mail: [email protected]
Attempts to make the user community aware of e-news and e-news services offered by different e-news channels all around the world. Provides a brief discussion of history and developments of e-news services, newspaper websites and latent advantages of e-news in the electronic era. Employs literature survey method to unfold the latest trends of e-news industry and finds that, though e-news services provide immense opportunity to the readers and simultaneous access at infinite points and reading at ones convenience, still a few key technical challenges like, navigational support, hyper linking, and designing of e-newspapers needs to be properly taken care of and tackled with. Concludes with the recommendation that information professionals should take steps to increase the usage of e-newspapers by their intended audience.
Introduction • E-news via e-devices – is an electronic newspaper service supported by e-paper A newspaper plays an important role in disseminating technology (i.e. an e-reader, such as Amazon current information and events and keeps its readers Kindle), e.g. Hindustan Times on Kindle up-to-date. The electronic newspaper or e-newspaper is a self-contained, reusable and refreshable version of By the late 1990s the availability of news via 24-hour a traditional newspaper that acquires and holds television channels and then the Internet posed an information electronically. Moreover, electronic ongoing challenge to the business model of most newspapers retrieve information electronically from newspapers in developed countries. Paid circulation online databases, process it electronically with word has declined, while advertising revenue — which processors, desktop publishing packages and a variety makes up the bulk of most newspapers’ income — of more technical hardware and software, and has been shifting from print to the new media, transmit it electronically to the end-users 1. Broadly resulting in a general decline in profits. Many speaking, e-news items which evolve from ‘online newspapers around the world launched online editions newspaper’, ‘PDF newspaper’, and ‘e-news via e- in an attempt to follow or stay ahead of their devices’ may not be taken synonymously since they audience. However, in the rest of the world, cheaper are different from each other in terms of printing and distribution, increased literacy, the developments and use. In order to avoid the growing middle class and other factors have more than compensated for the emergence of electronic confusion, the terms that are perceived little 2 differently may be described as: media and newspapers continue to grow . • Online newspaper/web newspaper – Online With the advent of the Internet, web-based editions of the newspapers available on the web, “newspapers” have also started as online-only with special characteristics such as navigation publications. For example, the Southport Reporter support, advertisement, and style of presenting the published from UK is the only web-based newspaper, news, e.g., The Hindu , The New Indian Express which does not have any connection to hard-copy formats. Moreover, the introduction of online editions • PDF newspaper - electronic replicas of the of newspapers has considerably affected the traditional newspapers, e.g., wikinews
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circulation of newspapers in their hard forms. hyperlinks, feedback and visual cues. Flavian and Gurrea 9 identified the main motivations that influence Literature review readers to read newspapers and the result of their Some of the experimental studies conducted on the study confirmed that readers motivated by aspects viability of electronic newspapers by the research related mainly to differential attributes of the Internet scholars from different parts of the world are worthy versus traditional channels perceive them both as of examination. In the aforesaid direction, Bains 3 in information conduits and not as substitutive products. his paper highlighted the development of electronic In another paper, Flavian and Gurrea 10 underlined the news production and predicted that electronic news growing importance of the electronic medium in the could replace ink on paper, but only when something work place, and particularly for the newspaper better than a PC screen comes into widespread use. business and analyzed the users’ behaviour and Dimmick et al 4 in their study found that the Internet attitude towards the digital press. has a competitive displacement effect on traditional The present paper intends to deal with some basic media in the daily news domain with the largest facets of e-news services that can help sharpen the displacements occurring for television and perception of information professionals and users’ newspapers. Ihlstrom et al 5 in their paper presented community regarding e-newspapers and e-news the future scenario of use and design of the e- services. newspaper. They addressed several issues like navigation, pagination, structure and overview of e- newspapers. Yijun and Liwen 6 studied the web Objectives of the study visibility of national newspapers from USA ( USA The study keeps the following objectives in its ambit Today The Globe and Mail ), Canada ( ), China of discussion: (People's Daily ) as well as Hong Kong ( Sing Tao Daily ) through link analysis and found that The Globe • To look into the comparative details of e- and Mail seemed to have a larger international reach newspapers with that of conventional newspapers; than USA Today . Neither newspaper website attracted • To explore the potential merits of e-news links from China or from pages in the Chinese services available all around the globe; language. Outside China, People's Daily , an official Chinese Government newspaper, is not as visible as • To discuss the pros and cons of e-news channels; Hong Kong based Sing Tao Daily . USA Today and • To reveal various possible modes of accessing e- The Globe and Mail were used more for news citing or reprinting purposes while People's Daily seemed to newspapers; and be used more as a research resource. It provided an • To make the users’ community aware of latent indirect view of the online readership. Ola and Ojo 7 advantages of e-news and e-news services. vividly discussed how the old newspapers can be made PDF and channelized online. The paper Methodology discussed traditional ways of managing newspaper resources and the need to device a new medium of The present study is a theoretical exploration that accessing the information contents of the resource. employs the methodology of literature survey. Latest The necessary news items were downloaded and literature collected on the topic of e-news and e-news imported into IFAnet database which was created services have been comprehended in order to assess using Microsoft Access. The versatility of the the important trends of e-news industry and the mode software for hosting the Information and the Network of e-news services offered at different parts of the (IFAnet) data was examined through searches made world. The authors too have given some impetus to using different parameters and search engines. this burning topic through the exercise of their Svensson and Hakerod 8 in their paper explored how personal experiences and knowledge. the navigational support in an e-newspaper should be designed to support the users’ task oriented reading Brief history and development behaviour and the study subsequently generated six guidelines which covered information structure, The birth of the electronic newspaper can be traced back to the early 1970s and the development of
PANDA & SWAIN: E-NEWSPAPERS AND E-NEWS SERVICES IN THE ELECTRONIC AGE: AN APPRAISAL 57
teletext, a one-way text display. In 1979, the first that have been delivering remarkable e-news services videotext system, Prestel, was launched, which over last several years. The rapid growth of e- incorporated graphics and allowed interaction. The newspapers during the late 1990s was driven not just 1990s, however, have seen a renaissance in electronic by the belief that this was the market to get into, but newspaper development. At the start of the 1990s, also by the fact that the technological means to do so there was only one electronic newspaper in existence, was readily available. The establishment of new the Star- Telegraph. By 1994, 40 electronic business practices, however, must have more to them newspapers were found only in USA 11 and today, than the satisfaction of some technical urge 13 . there has been a tremendous growth in number of e- However, the question remains how well the e- newspapers around the world. newspaper industry will survive when the source of collecting revenue from the customers has not yet Internet technology, in the way it accesses and been guaranteed. Nevertheless, there has been a presents information, is changing the rules of news growing popularity for online news and it is presumed publishing and distribution in many ways. The that sooner or later, a flexible price mechanism may challenge posed by the Internet for the news industry follow the mounting popularity of concerned e-news could mean a radical re-thinking of business paper unlike some popular priced e-databases. strategies, production practices and presentation formats with implications for the economics of new publishing 12 and there has been a paradigm shift in the A few news-oriented websites market of e-newspapers congruent with readers’ preference and choice for electronic information and All electronic newspapers have launched their entertainment sources to that of their printed respective websites for the access to varied contents counterparts. of news through Internet. A Google search retrieved many news oriented websites. Some of them are Kidon Media-Link , The Paperboy , News and listed in Table 1. Newspapers Online , Los Angeles Times , New York Daily News , Fox News , etc., are some of the leading e-newspapers to name a few from around the world E-newspapers from India
Table 1—Global news oriented web sites Sl No Global E-News Channels Websites
1 ABC News abcnews.go.com 2 BBC News news.bbc.co.uk/ 3 CBS News www.cbsnews.com/ 4 CNN www.cnn.com/ 5 Fox News www.foxnews.com/ 6 Los Angeles Times www.latimes.com/ 7 MSNBC www.msnbc.msn.com/ 8 New York Daily News www.nydailynews.com/ 9 PBS News www.pbs.org/newshour/ 10 Washington Post www.washingtonpost.com/ 11 Aajtak News www.aajtak.com/ 12 AIR www.allindiaradio.org/ 13 BBC World news.bbc.co.uk/ 14 CNBC TV www.cnbc.com/ 15 DD News www.ddinews.gov.in/ 16 NDTV News www.ndtv.com/ 17 Sahara News www.saharasamay.com/ 18 Star News starnews.indya.com/ 19 TV 9 www.tv9.net/ 20 PTI www.ptinews.com/
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The demand for online newspapers has been existed for a few years and the media houses all increasing for the past few years with the growing foresee revenues in this area. The main problem is the reach of Internet by offering the latest breaking news revenue sharing between the content providers and the with a minute update. The websites of some of the telecom operators, which today is in favor of the leading Indian e-papers are given in Table 2. telecom operators. Another problem is the diversity of devices and the lack of standards. Recently some of Media houses: ongoing trends the media houses have found a way around that by developing their own downloadable programs that With the ever increasing popularity of mobile reading runs on any mobile phone. The media houses are devices such as mobiles phones, net-books, and e- active in developing strategies for their mobile readers, many publishers are seeing the value in channels and are currently trying to find suitable producing an e-paper alongside their print editions in 14 business models as well as to developing new and order to boost subscriptions and readership and by value adding services 17 . However, there are certain this way e-newspapers are gradually creeping into the pros and cons associated with these channels that are academic scenario where the basic focus is on depicted in Table 3. electronic news delivery by navigational support to 15 task oriented reading however, financial outcome This table depicts that no channel is free from pitfalls remains one of the major concern for the media despite its prospective merits, however, in order to houses. Some online newspaper vendors are engaged keep pace with the changing attitude of the readership in generating revenue through advertisements and of late, media houses are moving fast towards the sponsorships. In this context, it is recommended that adoption of some new models explored through e- sponsorships may be processed differently than other medium replacing the printed ones. internet ads and perhaps due to their subtle nature, may confuse readers about the sponsor’s intent, thus Potential advantages resulting in decreased processing of the sites content The evolutionary changes to news publishing on the and subsequently may affect the memory of the internet invoke a different kind of response from readers 16 . readers. News consumers are encouraged by the Since the media houses expect an ongoing trend in internet to become interactive consumers who are decreased advertising revenues, they have to find new more demanding of the news provider. News ways to profiting. The mobile channels have just consumers are empowered by electronic publishing,
Table 2—Indian frontline e-papers E-Newspapers Website E-Newspapers Website
Accommodation epaper.accommodationtimes.com/ Asian Age epaper.asianage.com/ Times Deccan www.dc-epaper.com/ Deccan Post epaper.deccanpost.in/ Chronicle Financial e.mydigitalfc.com/ Financial Express epaper.financialexpress.com/ Chronicle Free Press www.freepressjournal.in/ Himalaya Darpan epaper.himalayadarpan.com/ Journal Global www.freepressjournal.in/ Indian Express epaper.indianexpress.com/ Education Hindustan Times epaper.hindustantimes.com/ The Economic Times economictimes.indiatimes.com/ New Indian epaper.newindpress.com/ The Pioneer epaper.dailypioneer.com/ Express Dainik Bhaskar digital.bhaskar.com/ The Telegraph epaper.telegraphindia.com/ Dainik Jagaran in.jagran.yahoo.com/epaper/ The Hindu epaper.thehindu.com/ Business www.bsepaper.com/ Times of India epaper.timesofindia.com/ Standard Source: http://www.epapercatalog.com/india-epapers.php
PANDA & SWAIN: E-NEWSPAPERS AND E-NEWS SERVICES IN THE ELECTRONIC AGE: AN APPRAISAL 59
Table 3—Pros and cons of today’s media channels Channels Pros Cons Print No power consumption needed Old news Shareable Waste of paper Durable No interactivity Portable Geographically limited Dispensable Scannable Good overview
Online Up to date Unsure business model Interactive Not mobile Searchable Poor overview Archiving No space limitations No geographical borders
Mobile Anytime, anywhere Expensive Push and pull Too small Immediacy Poor overview Personalization Slow High penetration Lack of standards
Source: Akesson and Ihlstrom (2006) when it is done properly, introducing a new form and got other benefits like, cost-effectiveness, time saving style 18 which combines many of the qualities of utility, easy to use, and more. printed paper with the advantages of electronic media- Adoption of RSS feeds the ability to deliver new editions instantly and without the need to print copies and transport them RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a document one over distances to thousands of retail outlets and can download from the web which describes website millions of subscribers. Above all, e-news papers content news, and resources from a specific website. have gained immense popularity among the users due Users of RSS can have up-to-date content from to the following advantages 19 : website and delivered to them and viewable via news aggregator- software which is tailored to receive these kinds of RSS feeds 20. Many e-newspapers these days 1. The style and presentation of e-newspapers are have already adopted RSS feeds to their specific news much better than their printed equivalents; items like, jobs, sports, foreign affairs, share markets, 2. In E-news papers, readers scroll the front page to etc. What the readers need to do is to subscribe to get an overview of the contents of the news site some RSS feed readers like Blogsline, Google reader, which is not possible through the printed news feed reader etc, and successfully install the concerned papers; RSS feed reader on their PC to browse and access the 3. E- news papers offer links to available sections as news. Now- a-days many RSS feed readers are well guide the readers to other relevant available to the readers free of cost. Therefore, there supplementary information details for further should be no difficulties on the part of users to information; download and install RSS feed readers on their PCs for subsequent use of news fed with RSS. 4. Provide easy options for turning pages, linking to dynamic indexes, searching, saving and printing, setting personal preferences, closing news papers Influence of e-news groups etc.; and E-news groups act like international bulletin boards. 5. E-newspapers offer multimedia and hyperlink Each group is a forum for a different subject, where a features. subscriber can post his/her questions or answers. However, it is expected from a user to go to the news Additionally, the authors feel that, e-newspapers have
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group himself to read it since news group posts are newsletters always involved large numbers of staff in not automatically deposited into the subscription mail a news gathering capacity, considerable resources for box. The mails from news groups do not get cluttered graphic design, and high capital resources for printing and it can be easily regulated how often messages are and distribution. The Fridge did away with all these read. There are hundreds of news group communities things 23 . The valid findings of this particular case around the world. They centre on topics such as imply that sooner or later this example will be computing, news and recreation, social and alternative followed by many organizations in different parts of topics 21. Therefore, specific groups can use their the world for ensuring a great economy in delivery of relevant news pertaining to their respective fields in a internal news within a particular system. most suitable and comprehensive manner.
Adopting e-newspaper readers Other modes of accessing e-news Reading e-newspapers can be easy, congenial, and There are some other ways of accessing e-news. Some productive if the readers subscribe to some available of the key technological devices which have been e-news paper readers. One such example is recently developed, of course with little commercial ‘Amazon’s kindle DX’. Amazon’s kindle DX is motif, for accessing e-news are depicted in Table 4. basically an e-book reader which is also quite suitable for reading e-newspapers. Newspapers are about text, Opportunities and challenges and there’s only a moderate need for interactivity. For An e-news service has offered a handful of each story, the reader views the headline and perhaps opportunities to the users’ community of late. It has skims the opening paragraph, and if it doesn’t look helped to ensure simultaneous access at infinite points interesting, moves on to the next story. However, the by saving of time and money. A user can go through limitation with DX is that the screen technology is the e-version of the newspaper, which is the replica of inherently too slow to support scrolling or fast page- the printed newspaper, by sitting at his/her desktop turning, but it will do an adequate job for people who 22 having internet connectivity at his/her own comfort like to read most of the day’s news stories .Besides, and convenience. Though people are gradually there are some other useful e-newspaper readers adopting e-newspapers and e-news services, it has not available in the market that the readers may quest for been able to fulfill some other advantages that they ensuring qualitative and most effective e-newspaper have from printed news papers. Continuity of the reading experience. news contents, scrolling of the pages, interruptions in reading, hyper linking, animations and few other Internal reading issues need to be taken care of by the e-publishers. In November 2006 the State Library of Victoria took Contextually, e-news publishers and electronic media a bold new approach to its internal communications houses have to play the most crucial role in exploring with the introduction of The Fridge – an online, daily the latest information communication technologies “news” service. A small icon – in the shape of a with a view to satisfying the needs of e-newspaper fridge – was posted on the desktop of every library readers from all possible angles so that they can really staff member. Staff members were invited to click on enjoy reading e-newspapers. Moreover, e-news the icon at any time, every day. When they did so, publishers and e-media houses should try to find the their computer screen filled with the image of an ways and means in all possible directions to harness actual fridge covered in “post-it” notes, photographs the revelations of information technology for and postcards. The Fridge was updated each day at promoting the quality by enriching the scope, 3pm: a lead story composed in “hard news” style; a contents, coverage, and design of e-newspapers that 60 second video featuring library staff or visitors; are the biggest challenges to be resolved in the days “post-it” note news of secondary importance; and an ahead. average of five feature pieces per week (typically about library people and programs). This content was Conclusion tantamount to a “real-time” news service – one that offered staff, when they were ready, willing and able, The advent of electronic newspapers has really access to a variety of information. Printing traditional offered us a great opportunity for making a swift
PANDA & SWAIN: E-NEWSPAPERS AND E-NEWS SERVICES IN THE ELECTRONIC AGE: AN APPRAISAL 61
Table 4—Latest devices used for aggregated access to e-news Devices Features Release File size Price Platform
RssNews 1.3 RssNews is an easy-to-use mobile RSS 2009 42.0 KB USD $9.99 Windows news reader where one can access to RSS feeds scattered all around the world and read latest news or blogs wherever he or she is.
News Desktop With news Desktop Scrolling Bar, one 2005 2.4 MB USD $34.95 Windows, Windows Scrolling Bar can get Worlds latest TV news right on Me, Windows NT, his/her desktop, including top stories, Windows 2000, sports, games, world news, health, Windows XP, technology, business, and science. Windows 2003
ESobi Mobile ESobi mobile integrates handy Internet 2010 1.1 MB USD $5.99 - (Android) 1.0 information management features to let everyone enjoy, manage, and share their favorite news, podcast, and personal contents via mobile device. Whether you are on the way to work, school, or simply during leisure
m9P News m9P news Feeder provides world-wide 2009 156.0 KB USD $0.00 Windows Feeder 1.0 daily updated news for technology, entertainment, tournaments, and world (Free ware) news from great sources directly to ones desktop!
WebNews.TV WebNews.TV downloads the latest 2009 1.5 MB USD $19.95 Windows 1.0.4 news from RSS news feeds and Web sites and then shows and pronounces them in TV like screen. Funny characters (for example - penguin) entertain you while you are reading and listening news headlines.
CoffeeCup It adds news from Yahoo, CNN, and 2007 5.3 MB USD $34.00 Windows, Windows RSS News CNET using Flash to ones Website. It XP Flash 4.5 uses RSS news Flash to announce news and link to other pages.
Source: http://www.fileheap.com/dbquery/1/mobile+technology+news
review of things and day today events that are conveniently for creating an enjoyable news gathering happening all around almost at a wink. Moreover, it experience among the readers of the electronic era. has certainly enriched the horizon of newspaper The key challenge before the LIS professionals is to reading by all class of people at a much faster pace increase the usage of e-news papers by its intended which no other medium can address. It is the right audience. time for the information professionals to apprise and sensitize the readers’ community the latent References advantages of e-newspapers and e-news services and carry out periodic information literacy campaign 1. Bains S, Electronic news: past, present and future, New among the users’ community for encouraging, Library World, 97(2) (1997) 4-12. promoting and developing their global news gathering 2. Ram N, Futures: India and the World, The Hindu, August 15(2007). habit pin-pointedly, easily, effectively, and
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