I had a conversation with a friend about the possiblity of the L.A. Times eliminating their printed editions and becoming an exclusively online newspaper.
I visit the L.A. Times web site every day but I still find that there are articles in the printed edition that I somehow miss online. I also find that reading on the computer is difficult for my eyes and I tend to skim more than I do when reading the physical edition. If given a choice between reading the printed edition or reading online, I would choose to read the actual newspaper.
However, here’s what the L.A. Times (and other papers) could do to improve the online experience of reading and I would be willing to pay for it.
1. Allow more customization.
I’d like to be able to have their web site show me sections of the newspaper that are of most interest to me. When baseball season is over, I don’t really read the sports section. I always read the business section and I like to read it first. Please let me arrange the web site like I can arrange my own newspaper.
2. I’m more interested in some stories than others. Similar to the way Netflix lets me find movies I’d like based on my ratings, can you intuitively figure out which articles are of most interest to me and show me those first?
3. Don’t put everything on the front page and make it easier to find other articles if I click away from your front page.
4. Show more videos. They’re interesting. The pairing between TV News and printed information is perhaps the most informative and and most user friendly format possible in this multimedia age.
Do you have any ideas?
-Make the videos large enough to see. On many NP sites, the video previews are tiny. Look at TV station sites, see how big their video boxes are.
-Like/Don’t Like boxes for stories and videos. Then you can have a trending topics/stories box to show what people like.
-Allow people in the community to moderate comments. Heck, pay them a small amount to do so. Find people in the comment sections who are articulate and fair. Ask them if they want to do it. Give them a short training on your standards and then let them moderate and keep an eye on them so they don’t kill all the comments, just the trolls.
How about making them more like books. People who read newspapers like to take there time, sit down and read a well written, well researched story. You cannot always find that on on a website. Make it easily viewable on a handheld device as opposed to a regular sized screen, this is in addition to the regular formatting. I am sitting in a coffee shop and I want to catch up a good story on a Sunday Morning. If I could get that story via my blackberry I don’t mind reading it but make it worth my while. Maybe offer a long an a short version, if I have my lap top. I can choose the format with more pictures on the larger view that I might select to use on the handheld. Certain stories may really interest me but I cannot read it when it was first published and I cannot find it on Sunday when I have time to read it. Can I save stories and have the story send me a reminder to read it (with teasers of course).
I’m still here, I still read – personally I look at about dozen news sites a day. My local paper (in Detroit) has very little online presence so I rarely read it. Come find me and I will read you. Hint, I am not sitting at home waiting for the paper, but I am always connected, cell phone, blog, websites, twitter, facebook In LinkedIn. If you cannot find me, you are not looking hard enough. I love to be informed.
Mathew,
I especially like your suggestion #4 showing more videos. I’m always asking google for a video on a topic. I like Teach_J’s idea about allowing comments and Wanda’s idea about being able to choose a format depending how you are connected. My pet peeve is that when I try to go back to reread an article it’s no longer available.