FREE ESSAY ON COMPARING AND CONTRASTING THE INTERNET TO PRINT

COMPARING AND CONTRASTING THE INTERNET TO PRINT

Comparing and Contrasting the Internet to Print 
The differences between the Internet and Print Journalism are clear immediately upon
glancing at either of the two. However, to truly understand the differences you must
study each carefully. I will briefly explore the differences between Newsweek and it's
printed counterpart, and Entrepreneur magazine vs. entrepreneurmag.com. These magazines
are very different in content and supply good examples of different features that exist
in a technological vs. a print environment. I will compare the differences between the
two in three areas; 1.Content 2. Advertising and 3. Useablity.
Content 
If you were to put any print magazine next to your computer monitor you would immediately
notice a difference. A difference not only in the format the material is set up, but a
difference in the actual content its' self. 
Newsweek is a magazine that delivers the news. One would assume that news is news, and if
it is printed one way in the magazine it should be the same online. This is not true.
Newsweek is a magazine that is released weekly, yet in e-commerce business moves at the
speed of thought (Bill Gates). This means that Newsweek must update their web site daily
and sometimes hourly. This makes a magazine that would seemingly follow the same pattern,
very different. News in print may not be the same as e-news. 
Entrepreneur magazine is a magazine that helps the small businesses of America. They are
very crafty in using bright colors that will grab potential buyers attention at the
newsstand. This creates a problem for their online business. Whenever you have lots of
colors or graphics your page will not load quickly. This means that what works in print
will not work for their e- magazine. They have to rely on good spot graphics and
headlines to attract attention. They do not do this very effectively. From looking at
their web site you will see that they have had a hard time crossing over from print to
the Internet.
Advertising
Advertising is essential in both print and web business because it is a main source of
income to any multi-media company. Newsweek sells pages and pages of ads in their
magazine. These are well done color ads which are designed to attract the attention of
the reader as they flip through the magazine. On the Internet site Newsweek chooses to
place banner ads in the middle of the text page (bad placement). The difference is that
advertising on the Internet is much more personable. Thanks to little mechanisms called
cookies the ads you see on the Internet site become personalized. These cookies tell a
database sites to which you have previously logged on. In a fraction of a second you
receive personal advertising that you never would have seen in a print ad. Entrepreneur
does the same thing. You are receiving advertising that fits your wants and needs and all
at a fraction of the cost to advertisers (who generally pay about 1 cent per hit). This
is an advertisers dream and is a noticeable difference between the two forms of media.
Useablity
The term useablity seems to deal only with the Internet side of the two forms of media.
This is a misconception. It is not uncommon to look for a certain story in a magazine in
the table of contents. This is print useablity. Online useablity is undisputably better.
Both sites have a type of search mechanism so that if you are looking for a story on Bill
Gates you are not limited to one issue. This may be the greatest advantage in having an
online version of a magazine. No longer is the user limited to the one issue recently
purchased. Stories are at the users fingertips no matter when they were written.
People have different views on what the roles of print magazines will be in contrast to
online magazines in the future. Some magazine companies choose to downplay the Internet
and the role it will take in regards to their industry. Neil Postman, a well known
philosopher of New Media Technologies states that when we begin relying on the Internet
for all of our news and information we will turn into a nation of zombies. I think that
Bill Gates and many others would disagree. The differences are great and companies must
adapt to those differences in order to be successful.