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Having grown up pre-digital, I love physical books and paper, but have switch to online newspaper for practical reasons - I can get them earlier (which I need for my work) and without leaving my apartment. I hate disagreeing with Lizzie (as I'm usually wrong), but I think the on-line version of some papers (NYT and WSJ, for example) - once one gets the hang of it (took me some time) - does provide a context and "code" for how to read it / what's important / where to find things. And the links to other related stories and past stories is quite helpful. To be clear, I am referencing the computer screen version not the mobile phone version (which is meaningfully inferior for the NYT and marginally worse for the WSJ).
My only two complaints with the on-line version is they never stop tinkering with it. In the physical world, when a paper would update its physical layout, it was a big deal and happened rarely; on-line, they tinker too often so you are almost always learning anew how to use it. Also - and this is my only real complaint (I can adjust to the rejiggering) - there is no beginning and no end - there is no, "this is the news today." Instead, stories come and go, get updated and edited all the time, so you aren't really sure if you've read everything, missed something or need to re-read a story as periodically you'll see "update at..." and a later time posted.
I push myself to think if this is just a cranky "old-school" complaint as I don't know how to "think" in the digital world, but I don't think so as it seems odd to ask your reader to re-read an entire story just to find the one or two updated paragraph or few lines. And it seems odd to not provide a clearer timeline of stories, but that might be because the digital generation is always "surfing" and not looking for a complete read.
My only two complaints with the on-line version is they never stop tinkering with it. In the physical world, when a paper would update its physical layout, it was a big deal and happened rarely; on-line, they tinker too often so you are almost always learning anew how to use it. Also - and this is my only real complaint (I can adjust to the rejiggering) - there is no beginning and no end - there is no, "this is the news today." Instead, stories come and go, get updated and edited all the time, so you aren't really sure if you've read everything, missed something or need to re-read a story as periodically you'll see "update at..." and a later time posted.
I push myself to think if this is just a cranky "old-school" complaint as I don't know how to "think" in the digital world, but I don't think so as it seems odd to ask your reader to re-read an entire story just to find the one or two updated paragraph or few lines. And it seems odd to not provide a clearer timeline of stories, but that might be because the digital generation is always "surfing" and not looking for a complete read.