Newspapers...

As we continue our journey and analysis of print versions vs. online or electronic versions I notice myself struggling to argue that print versions will never fade away. For example, one of the reasons it took me so long to complete this assignment, was because I found it to be out of my way to pick up the print version of the newspaper. On that same note, I noticed that I was only willing to do this assignment on a weekday, because those days the paper is sent directly to the residence halls, heaven forbid I should have to walk across the street to Seven Eleven and spend my time or money on a newspaper!

Enough talk of my laziness. As for content I found many pros and cons to both styles. I enjoyed having my print version with me to leisurely read throughout the day. I was able to let pictures sway me toward reading certain articles, and also skim through articles that I may not normally read. These are two aspects that are not as strong online. Online is formatted much more strictly. It is set up so it is typically easy to find specific topics you may be searching for. Online I was able to think of articles I had read earlier, and easily navigate to them. Another example, within different sections, lets say the sports section, there are drop menus on the left of the screen that allow you to navigate by areas of interest. On the sports section there was a list of local sports and teams, and by simply clicking on your team of choice, lets say SJSU, you can get info on that team. (http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/colleges/san_jose_state/) While this was convenient, if you do not know exactly what you want to read, the drop menus, and endless lists of topics may seem like a jumble of articles and words.

There is no doubt that to millions of Americans reading the morning newspaper with breakfast is a habit and a leisure they will not want to give up in the near future. However to many, the free and mostly organized online version may be more convenient.