Daily online newspaper launches in Adelaide

Hmmm, interesting, except what’s the point of having a web-based news source if you can’t have the most up-to-date information on a topic? The best part about getting news from the web is that it’s so current and easily updated, but as the Independent Weekly has to put the stories into layout and then upload it onto Realview they have to deal with similar time constraints that a printed publication has to deal with. So I don’t think they’re really taking advantage of the web medium.

Then again, maybe there is a lot of potential in this format and I just can’t see it.

What do people think in general of papers/magazines that mimic the printed format online?

craptacular

Looks to me like the layout can be readily templated and up to date stories would be loaded in time for whenever the thing was going to be released. Magazines are going this way by the bucket load in the US because advertisers want to be able to represent print campaigns online, which websites can’t support the same way this kind of format can. The images and video support for each story is better integrated in this kind of concept, it connects the reader more readily to the story. Websites are full of videos that don’t have anything to do with the main stories on the page at all and don’t add any value to the headlines.

Hey Sportzilla, interesting take. What are some of the magazines that you know of that are doing something similar? I’d be keen to take a look at them.

Most of the magazines I’ve researched in the US are moving towards a totally different business model. They’re increasing the cost of the publication to the subscribers so that they don’t have to rely solely on advertising revenue and then using the web in a totally different way ie they are not treating their site as an online version of their magazine. And they are not giving away content for free on the web that comes in the magazine.

This is a pretty massive FAIL.

The only conceivable reason I can think of for launching a Flash based newspaper such as this is because it’s targeting an elderly demographic who relate better to the old school newspaper format.

Other negatives are poor accessibility and no search functionality.

I don’t think it is Flash based – I think HTML! Have seen some really cool stuff from this company – RealView! It is fully searchable and trackable as it is web based. And if it is now also auditable it is a complete package deal hey!

Issuu has provided the same thing for publishers for years … and it’s free.

Hi Lizza, looking at the website of the service provider it looks like they are publishing for a lot of different magazines but I am not sure how many of them are using it the same way that the Independent Weekly is – they seem to have taken it to a bit of a new level – check out some of the back issues, they have developed animations to support some of the news stories, it’s just eye catching but not in your face like some web ads can be, which is something I loathe.

Publishing models here have already changed – look at the business that emerged from iSUBSCRIBE. I wonder if using a format like this means publishers can pick up more online subscriptions and maybe keep the subs revenue in-house?

Carl – Depends on what basis you call it a fail – if advertisers are supporting it and readers are engaging with it and it paid for itself, it wouldnt be a failure would it?

I’ve just been checking out this story, as a media buyer I know that more and more titles are going down this path. Some digital titles claim good numbers but I’m not prepared to buy as there is limited support to verify the publishers claim. I wouldn’t look at any print or digital publication that wasn’t audited. End of story.

NNRrrrrr…..dont think so!!

I dont get it either?

Old style paper online was available in 2001.

But maybe I’m missing something too.

Old style paper with an old style business model? I think what this is is new style paper with video and interactive ads with a new business model. I think when Murdoch states newspapers will be digital within 10 years maybe it will look something like this?

Lizza – I’ve been scouting around this this story came out and there are other companies that have flip book software. Looking at the article again and the sub story about the ABA’s Web Audit Service, I guess the main difference is the Independent Weekly will now be able to get official audit figures on the readership of its digital publications? I’m not sure any other digital publishing service out there has automated an auditing service through the CAB before?

feels clunky – it might work on a portable device but doesn’t on a laptop

sportzilla – yeah the main difference does seem to be the CAB service. It’s a good extra.

Ben – . I’ve subscribed now because I am interested to see how the publisher evolves this and I want to keep track of which advertisers are using it. I work from a laptop and I haven’t had any issue with it – what was happening when you checked it out?

I love it. There is flash content but it’s good content, a daily, local editorial from a very articulate and engaging editor, and the journos are constantly updating stories both in the publication and on the Independent Weekly’s website. It leaves other online news offerings for dead in terms of feel, digestible reading and relevance. Check it out! http://www.indaily.com.au

sportzilla – technically it works … for me as a reader it just feels awkward and doesn’t really make me want to read the content. maybe it lacks the skin articles and sensationalist content of the main digital mastheads that keeps my attention.

Hey Nic, hope they give you a pay rise over at the Indy for your post.

Hang on Mumbrella is a media and marketing site isn’t it?

Did you see the way the display ads were working on indaily?

Eyecatching but not annoying, there for the viewing, both directly and subliminally.

I’ve never seen so many ads so well displayed on a site.

And since the content is categorised according to subject, advertisers can target their readers…

Everyone is pointing out how online sites don’t earn enough ad revenue to run a newspaper. This could be a way around it…

There’s some merit in what they’ve done, but they’re still going about it in the wrong way. Such news sources shouldn’t be trying to replicate the “turn the page” and “two facing pages” parts of reading a physical newspaper or magazine – by default the text is too small and the zoom-to-read functions are a bit awkward. On top of that, unless I’m mistaken, they can’t really track attention to an individual article, but then again that might reduce the downward slide to the “Amazing photos of Miranda Kerr” tripe we get on News Ltd sites.

What is worth replicating though is the inclusion of multimedia and the variety of ad/promo placements which you don’t always get in a standard template-driven news site. But the reason things have evolved in the way they have is that it’s cheaper to paste content into an article template than it is to create a fairly custom layout per page.

The best solution IMO will be the one that combines the best of both approaches and it could be done economically through provision of maybe 10-15 layout templates, and some concept of reading through a publication rather than just scouring a list of headlines. Rather than facing-pages and page-turning mechanisms, there’d be a stronger previous/next navigation – more so than “Next page” which is all most multi-page articles have now.