Comments on: Google Can Save Digital Newspapers and Magazines [Opinion]

By: Ron Offringa

Ron Offringa — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 06:10:00 +0000

I like your last point. Something I hadn’t considered.

By: mkranitz

mkranitz — Wed, 30 May 2012 22:24:00 +0000

I disagree with this approach. When individualism becomes so focused, readers and society as a whole loses touch with the larger picture. Most of the information we are exposed to on a daily basis is not information we would choose from a menu. It just catches our eye. When it does, our horizons are instantly broadened. By narrowing the scope of what people read to only those things they can imagine, we limit their breadth of awareness and intelligence.

If you consider the case of our niche (radio control flight), having a “package of articles” (conveniently called a magazine) that touch on different elements of the hobby is what makes reading it entertaining. It’s what gets a hobbyist to sit down with the tablet for the EXPERIENCE and the EXPOSURE to things they might not have otherwise found had they been served up exactly what they asked for.

Last thing here; when I was attending Law School at Vanderbilt in the early 80′s, Westlaw and Lexus-Nexus search tools were just coming online. Everyone loved them because the software could pinpoint searches to find legal precedent applicable to the case at hand. But as I entered practice, I found those tools lacking when compared to browsing through case summaries in an advance sheet. By browsing over content I was not necessarily looking for, I enriched my library of knowledge and was able to apply it to other cases I had then and in the future. It’s no different from magazines. If a magazine is well-thought, it should be able to serve content that is engaging to the reader without having the reader select specifically what the reader THINKS he/she wants to read based on a preview.

By: Keg Man

Keg Man — Tue, 29 May 2012 20:16:00 +0000

The reason I wont subscribe to media is
1. Nobody really has time to read the paper everyday like they used to.
2. We know the electronic version of the paper is “virtually free” so dont insult me by taking off a dollar off the printed subscription price.
3. printed media failed to reinvent itself and many people have found other interesting things to read like Droid-Life. I know more about phones than I do about the news and I dont care.
4. The printed media is suffering because there are just so much more to do to pass the time, reading blogs, writing blogs, text messaging, dvr, angry birds…..there were less things to do to pass the time back when printed media was king.
It is not necessarily the internet or digital content that blew up the printed media, its juts that we have more options to pass the time now.

By: mdeamicis

mdeamicis — Sun, 27 May 2012 04:37:00 +0000

“If publishers and Google can work together to correct these errors, together they can save digital magazines and newspapers. ”

These are the most intelligent words I have ever heard form a blogger or just about anyone else for that matter.

This is why I do not buy or even read magazines. I have to flip like ten pages to get to the next word in a broken sentence and am instantly pissed off. It breaks the flow and kills the joy for me. I have not picked up a magazine for ten years even at the doctors office. I take a book or my game boy or now my phone keeps me happy.

I remember even s a kid. Newspapers pissed me off. They are like the size of a flicking kitchen table and then they do that shit where the article is spread out over different sections so you have to bounce back and forth. I think and read linearly. I also like to finish a thought before picking up another and having to find the rest of the article shatters that process. I have not read a newspaper in over 20 yeas. I also trust news reporters about as fa as I can throw a politician so that makes it relevant anyway. I don’t even watch the news on TV, which brings me to my last ant.

I have not had cable TV for a few yeas now. Yea see, when I am paying for a medium, and then the provider of that medium is adding advertise content to it, ad making me watch shit I don’t care about in between segments of what I do want to see, I feel like my money has been stolen from me. I feel that if I am paying 100 bucks a month to watch sesame street then I should not have to listen to some asshole lie to me about how good Chevy is and that I should buy American.

I doubt you even know how right he got it. But you nailed it as far as I am concerned.

By: nicknowsky

nicknowsky — Sat, 26 May 2012 15:51:00 +0000

i love Google Currents, especially on my iPad. But I do use it on all my devices

By: Martin Nilsson

Martin Nilsson — Sat, 26 May 2012 13:58:00 +0000

A clever way to create a newspaper app would be to use all the available methods that Google offers. Create an app where you get the “bigger” articles for free, use ads to cover the costs or sell it for a low price. Add the ability to buy today’s news paper, as an in-app payment and then also add the ability to buy a subscription. Should give users all the choice they want and need =) (and since this isn’t Apple you would probably be able to buy the actual paper and get access to the app as well. Or buy your subscription straight from the newspaper and unlock using some code )

By: Michael

Michael — Sat, 26 May 2012 06:15:00 +0000

Scientific American has to be the only magazine that charges you to read their content on their webpage and has not created an e-zine on any platform like amazon or play, etc. Their magazine subscription to have it mailed to your home is 3 times cheaper than their online subscription on their site, usually its the other way around online cheaper than a physical and delivered. Just saying because this magazine is like one of the last to catch up with the times. And its my favorite.

By: Brian

Brian — Sat, 26 May 2012 02:44:00 +0000

Am I really the only one that hates Google currents. That app is a POS compared to other RSS feeds.

By: Tyler Chappell

Tyler Chappell — Sat, 26 May 2012 00:57:00 +0000

I enjoy using Google Currents, I would pretty much treat it as my “newspaper” for when I would get breakfast etc. As far as magazines though, rather than buying a subscription, I just go into a Barnes & Noble etc and read the magazines that interest me like PCGamer, Photoshop Creative, etc. So essentially, I am getting the content without paying for it right? No one can stop you from just picking up a magazine and reading through it unless they put that annoying plastic wrap around it.
Basically I think the Netflix model would work best for subscription magazines, a low monthly price for unlimited content essentially. One of my biggest pet peeves about reading any tech magazine is how the content is already outdated or old news, or something I have already read on the internet before the magazine gets put out, so what’s the point? If it were all digital, the information would be much more current and convenient.
It always cracks me up that it will be like the beginning of May or something and I walk into a store and pick up a June issue of some magazine yet all the information is stuff I knew about in April. It’s misleading as far as I am concerned to have a June issue of a magazine that doesn’t even include content from June etc. Magazines are old news to me.

By: Ron Offringa

Ron Offringa — Fri, 25 May 2012 20:18:00 +0000

They are different, but I’ve gone back to read a good article again. I think the largest issues is that people want to be able to pick what sorts of news and articles they read, not rely on a magazine editor to decide for them. That shift requires a change in the way we approach subscriptions to magazines and newspapers.

By: ddevito

ddevito — Fri, 25 May 2012 20:07:00 +0000

Don’t confuse media with newspapers and magazines.

A song or a movie is meant to be played repeatedly. Whereas, a magazine or newspaper is read once.

People don’t mind spending $3-$5 for a magazine. On the flip side, people spend $500 for an iPad, why spend $5 for a digital magazine on top of that?

By: Ron Offringa

Ron Offringa — Fri, 25 May 2012 19:54:00 +0000

Agreed. The app needs a lot of work.

By: CORYK333

CORYK333 — Fri, 25 May 2012 19:39:00 +0000

Wow, really dude?? I love the Internet……

By: bakdroid

bakdroid — Fri, 25 May 2012 19:36:00 +0000

His articles are “rubbish”. Every article he writes is either stating the obvious (like this one) or completely misinformed trash. He contradicts himself constantly, he bashes Google but then turns around and says that they could be the savior of something. He is a complete tool and people need to realize this. Anyone with a brain already knows what he is writing about here, which is probably why you like this article. Hey, news flash! The earth is round! Wow, that means I should write an opinion post here too!

I write one line, he writes a novel, and you write 4 lines and I am the one who likes to hear myself talk?? How an originally childish comment. So to come down to your level…..I am rubber and you are glue…

By: Jubby Salhi

Jubby Salhi — Fri, 25 May 2012 19:33:00 +0000

I love Google Currents…WHEN IT WORKS. Seriously, this damn app has frozen time and time again on my tablet, particularly after a few pages of reading.