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Blue
The Future of Print
By Sé J. Reed
The future of print
is digital.
The era of paper print
journalism is over, according to Roger Fidler, who presented the “Future
of Print” panel Friday.
“Today's younger generations
will expect information media to be more interactive and compelling than
traditional printed publications can provide,” said Fidler, director of
the Institute for CyberInformation at Kent State. “They do not have the
attachment to ink and paper that older generations have.”
Shifting to more interactive
interfaces will satiate the ever-shrinking attention spans of new readers.
But in addition to helping solve the problem of declining readership, digital
systems will save publishers the huge costs associated with ink-and-paper
printing. And ecologically, digital publishing will ease worries about
the printing industry’s damage to the environment.
Despite this, the print
industry has been hesitant to make the jump. One of the reasons for this
is the technology has not yet made the transition seamless – the convenience
and relatively cheap cost of the paper publications on the reader’s end
has far outweighed the benefits of the unfamiliar digital. On the editor’s
end, no technology has emerged that was convenient enough to merit a switch.
This, however, will soon change.
“The emergence of more
paper-like, more durable low-cost electronic displays will be a key factor
in the widespread adoption of digital publications,” Fidler said.
In line with that vision,
one of Microsoft’s newest technological toys, the Tablet PC, was showcased
by co-presenter Bert Keely, the architect for both the Tablet PC and eBooks
at Microsoft.
Keely presented the
Tablet PC at the panel as both an electronic print reader and copy editing
tool.
The first of its kind,
the Tablet PC is a true computer, not just another multi-function
organizer, running real applications.
The key difference, besides the compact size, is the use of handwriting
and voice recognition instead of a keyboard. This is the next generation
of PDAs, essentially integrating the convenience of paper with the functionality
of computers.
Additionally, the new devices
give consumers new ways to read their daily paper. So what effect will
this have on those of us behind the scenes? Work, work and more work.
As the demand increases
for digital versions of traditional print content, publishers will need
to produce ever-changing formats to provide it.
“They will be using
database and network publishing systems to produce Web sites, personalized
digital services for wireless handheld devices, multimedia editions for
electronic tablets and PCs, as well as other products and services not
yet conceived,” Fidler said. “All this means that copy editors will be
taking on even more production
responsibilities in the future.”
As more of the print
industry moves into the digital future, the structure of the newsroom will
change to fit it. Around-the-clock posting will become the norm, which
means one thing:
“No deadlines,” Keely
said. “Or endless deadlines, depending on your point of view.”
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Sé J. Reed is a student at
Cal State Long Beach. She can be reached at egersis@hotmail.com.