Online vs. Print News

Today I compared the print version of the San Jose Mercury News with the online version. The first thing I noticed was that the front page articles in the print version were only linked to on the home page of the Mercury News' website, while blurbs from newer stories were written out. I can certainly see why they would want to do this. First, the featured story on the print version was an anniversary piece on a traffic column. Interesting to loyal Mercury readers, but not really big news. It makes sense to put more newsworthy stories on the webpage as they get them, therefore keeping their publication up-to-date and interesting. This is a major advantage that online media has over print; there's no limit to how many stories they can put up per day, and no gaps in the news between one printing and the next.

I looked next at the Arts & Entertainment sections of both the print and online Mercury. The "featured story" on the website was the last article on the front page of the print "A & E" section, a story on a T.V. show that premiers tonight called "Heroes." The rest of the front page stories were linked to, but did not warrant a blurb. I wonder why they made that choice? Perhaps they figured that people who log on to the Mercury website for quick news would be more interested in a T.V. show premiering tonight than a longer piece on Jon Heder (the featured piece in the print version). Maybe they figure that those wanting more in-depth news will take the time to click on a link.

Another thing I noticed in the Entertainment section online was an "Events" tool, which allows you to post events or search for things happening on a particular day. This certainly seems like a useful feature. In fact, one of my favorite things about online newspapers is the ability to preform searches to find the information you need.

After this experience, I might just start reading the online version of the Mercury more. After all, the news is more current, there are more features, and it doesn't stain my hands black. Now my only dilemma is how to get my crossword fix...