Internet And Print Journalism Essay, Research Paper

The differences between the Internet and Print Journalism are clear immediately

upon glancing at either of the two. However, to truly understand the differences

you must study each carefully. I will briefly explore the differences between

Newsweek and it’s printed counterpart, and Entrepreneur magazine vs.

entrepreneurmag.com. These magazines are very different in content and supply

good examples of different features that exist in a technological vs. a print

environment. I will compare the differences between the two in three areas;

1.Content 2. Advertising and 3. Useablity. Content If you were to put any print

magazine next to your computer monitor you would immediately notice a

difference. A difference not only in the format the material is set up, but a

difference in the actual content its’ self. Newsweek is a magazine that delivers

the news. One would assume that news is news, and if it is printed one way in

the magazine it should be the same online. This is not true. Newsweek is a

magazine that is released weekly, yet in e-commerce business moves at the

"speed of thought" (Bill Gates). This means that Newsweek must update

their web site daily and sometimes hourly. This makes a magazine that would

seemingly follow the same pattern, very different. News in print may not be the

same as "e-news". Entrepreneur magazine is a magazine that helps the

small businesses of America. They are very crafty in using bright colors that

will grab potential buyers attention at the newsstand. This creates a problem

for their online business. Whenever you have lots of colors or graphics your

page will not load quickly. This means that what works in print will not work

for their e- magazine. They have to rely on good spot graphics and headlines to

attract attention. They do not do this very effectively. From looking at their

web site you will see that they have had a hard time crossing over from print to

the Internet. Advertising Advertising is essential in both print and web

business because it is a main source of income to any multi-media company.

Newsweek sells pages and pages of ads in their magazine. These are well done

color ads which are designed to attract the attention of the reader as they flip

through the magazine. On the Internet site Newsweek chooses to place banner ads

in the middle of the text page (bad placement). The difference is that

advertising on the Internet is much more personable. Thanks to little mechanisms

called "cookies" the ads you see on the Internet site become

personalized. These cookies tell a database sites to which you have previously

logged on. In a fraction of a second you receive personal advertising that you

never would have seen in a print ad. Entrepreneur does the same thing. You are

receiving advertising that fits your wants and needs and all at a fraction of

the cost to advertisers (who generally pay about 1 cent per hit). This is an

advertisers dream and is a noticeable difference between the two forms of media.

Useablity The term useablity seems to deal only with the Internet side of the

two forms of media. This is a misconception. It is not uncommon to look for a

certain story in a magazine in the table of contents. This is print useablity.

Online useablity is undisputably better. Both sites have a type of search

mechanism so that if you are looking for a story on Bill Gates you are not

limited to one issue. This may be the greatest advantage in having an online

version of a magazine. No longer is the user limited to the one issue recently

purchased. Stories are at the users fingertips no matter when they were written.

People have different views on what the roles of print magazines will be in

contrast to online magazines in the future. Some magazine companies choose to

downplay the Internet and the role it will take in regards to their industry.

Neil Postman, a well known philosopher of New Media Technologies states that

"when we begin relying on the Internet for all of our news and information

we will turn into a nation of zombies". I think that Bill Gates and many

others would disagree. The differences are great and companies must adapt to

those differences in order to be successful.