A focus group of sorts...

So, the other day, in my J1 class, students did a comparison/contrast assignment concerning print and online newspapers. Of course, our samples are a little skewed, because the only paper we looked at was the Star, but some of their comments I found quite interesting.

At newspapers all over the country right now, people are talking about how to get and keep younger readers, who don’t grow up in the habit of reading papers like older generations did.

Take note, those in charge of big online pushes:
“Print for me is better, I like it because it’s delivered to my house everyday. I already know how to use it and know where everything is. It’s (print) easier to read and has better headlines.”

“I probably like the print version better because it’s easier to read and I feel more grown up reading an actual newspaper. I also like all of the color and organization of the print newspaper.”

“I like newspapers. I think the website has a lot more stuff to look at, but the newspaper is more fun. The huge headlines get my attention a lot more than those on the web.”

“I like the feeling of actual newspapers. Newspapers smell good. I think it’s also easier to find what you want in the print newspaper.”

“The internet is not organized in a way that makes me want to read it. Too many ads, too hard to find what I’m interested in.”

And, my favorite:
“I like the newspaper better because you can take it anywhere, touch it, burn it, eat it if you need to do so. Also, you can doodle on the pictures of people you don’t like.”

Obviously, I’ve only given you one side of the story, but the just over half of the students preferred print to online. What I think is interesting about this is that many of them said they find the paper version easier to navigate, and find what you want. Even with a search function on web pages?

I would tend to agree with them. Sure, you can find the top news stories, but if you want the FYI section or sports sections, or other feature content, sometimes they can be hard to find on many news websites.

I know this isn’t a journalism scholarly journal, but I also think that most people who read my blog either work at, have worked for or studied newspapers at some point in their life.




P.S. This is what I would look like if I was a character on the Simpsons. Adam did it the other night. Try it yourself: SimpsonizeMe.