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E-newspapers and e-news services in the electronic age: An appraisal

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Annals of Library and Information Studies
Vol. 58, March 2011, pp. 55-62

E-newspapers and e-news services in the electronic age: an appraisal


K. C. Panda1 and Dillip K Swain2

1
Dean (Faculty of Arts), Professor& Head, PG Department of Library and Information Science, Sambalpur University,
Jyotivihar, Burla-768019, Sambalpur, Odisha, E-mail: krushna52@yahoo.co.in

2
Assistant Librarian, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology University, Bhubaneswar-751024, Odisha, E-mail:
swaindk_69@yahoo.co.in

Attempts to make the user community aware of e-news and e-news services offered by different e-news channels all
around the world. Provides a brief discussion of history and developments of e-news services, newspaper websites and latent
advantages of e-news in the electronic era. Employs literature survey method to unfold the latest trends of e-news industry
and finds that, though e-news services provide immense opportunity to the readers and simultaneous access at infinite points
and reading at ones convenience, still a few key technical challenges like, navigational support, hyper linking, and designing
of e-newspapers needs to be properly taken care of and tackled with. Concludes with the recommendation that information
professionals should take steps to increase the usage of e-newspapers by their intended audience.

Introduction • E-news via e-devices – is an electronic


newspaper service supported by e-paper
A newspaper plays an important role in disseminating technology (i.e. an e-reader, such as Amazon
current information and events and keeps its readers Kindle), e.g. Hindustan Times on Kindle
up-to-date. The electronic newspaper or e-newspaper
is a self-contained, reusable and refreshable version of By the late 1990s the availability of news via 24-hour
a traditional newspaper that acquires and holds television channels and then the Internet posed an
information electronically. Moreover, electronic ongoing challenge to the business model of most
newspapers retrieve information electronically from newspapers in developed countries. Paid circulation
online databases, process it electronically with word has declined, while advertising revenue — which
processors, desktop publishing packages and a variety makes up the bulk of most newspapers’ income —
of more technical hardware and software, and has been shifting from print to the new media,
transmit it electronically to the end-users1. Broadly resulting in a general decline in profits. Many
speaking, e-news items which evolve from ‘online newspapers around the world launched online editions
newspaper’, ‘PDF newspaper’, and ‘e-news via e- in an attempt to follow or stay ahead of their
devices’ may not be taken synonymously since they audience. However, in the rest of the world, cheaper
are different from each other in terms of printing and distribution, increased literacy, the
developments and use. In order to avoid the growing middle class and other factors have more
confusion, the terms that are perceived little than compensated for the emergence of electronic
differently may be described as: media and newspapers continue to grow2.

• Online newspaper/web newspaper – Online With the advent of the Internet, web-based
editions of the newspapers available on the web, “newspapers” have also started as online-only
with special characteristics such as navigation publications. For example, the Southport Reporter
support, advertisement, and style of presenting the published from UK is the only web-based newspaper,
news, e.g., The Hindu, The New Indian Express which does not have any connection to hard-copy
formats. Moreover, the introduction of online editions
• PDF newspaper - electronic replicas of the of newspapers has considerably affected the
traditional newspapers, e.g., wikinews
56 ANN. LIB. INF. STU., MARCH 2011

circulation of newspapers in their hard forms. hyperlinks, feedback and visual cues. Flavian and
Gurrea9 identified the main motivations that influence
Literature review
readers to read newspapers and the result of their
Some of the experimental studies conducted on the study confirmed that readers motivated by aspects
viability of electronic newspapers by the research related mainly to differential attributes of the Internet
scholars from different parts of the world are worthy versus traditional channels perceive them both as
of examination. In the aforesaid direction, Bains3 in information conduits and not as substitutive products.
his paper highlighted the development of electronic In another paper, Flavian and Gurrea10 underlined the
news production and predicted that electronic news growing importance of the electronic medium in the
could replace ink on paper, but only when something work place, and particularly for the newspaper
better than a PC screen comes into widespread use. business and analyzed the users’ behaviour and
Dimmick et al4 in their study found that the Internet attitude towards the digital press.
has a competitive displacement effect on traditional
The present paper intends to deal with some basic
media in the daily news domain with the largest
facets of e-news services that can help sharpen the
displacements occurring for television and
perception of information professionals and users’
newspapers. Ihlstrom et al5 in their paper presented
community regarding e-newspapers and e-news
the future scenario of use and design of the e-
services.
newspaper. They addressed several issues like
navigation, pagination, structure and overview of e-
newspapers. Yijun and Liwen6 studied the web Objectives of the study
visibility of national newspapers from USA (USA The study keeps the following objectives in its ambit
Today), Canada (The Globe and Mail), China
of discussion:
(People's Daily) as well as Hong Kong (Sing Tao
Daily) through link analysis and found that The Globe • To look into the comparative details of e-
and Mail seemed to have a larger international reach newspapers with that of conventional newspapers;
than USA Today. Neither newspaper website attracted
• To explore the potential merits of e-news
links from China or from pages in the Chinese
services available all around the globe;
language. Outside China, People's Daily, an official
Chinese Government newspaper, is not as visible as • To discuss the pros and cons of e-news channels;
Hong Kong based Sing Tao Daily. USA Today and
The Globe and Mail were used more for news citing • To reveal various possible modes of accessing e-
or reprinting purposes while People's Daily seemed to newspapers; and
be used more as a research resource. It provided an • To make the users’ community aware of latent
indirect view of the online readership. Ola and Ojo7 advantages of e-news and e-news services.
vividly discussed how the old newspapers can be
made PDF and channelized online. The paper Methodology
discussed traditional ways of managing newspaper
resources and the need to device a new medium of The present study is a theoretical exploration that
accessing the information contents of the resource. employs the methodology of literature survey. Latest
The necessary news items were downloaded and literature collected on the topic of e-news and e-news
imported into IFAnet database which was created services have been comprehended in order to assess
using Microsoft Access. The versatility of the the important trends of e-news industry and the mode
software for hosting the Information and the Network of e-news services offered at different parts of the
(IFAnet) data was examined through searches made world. The authors too have given some impetus to
using different parameters and search engines. this burning topic through the exercise of their
Svensson and Hakerod8 in their paper explored how personal experiences and knowledge.
the navigational support in an e-newspaper should be
designed to support the users’ task oriented reading Brief history and development
behaviour and the study subsequently generated six
guidelines which covered information structure, The birth of the electronic newspaper can be traced
back to the early 1970s and the development of
PANDA & SWAIN: E-NEWSPAPERS AND E-NEWS SERVICES IN THE ELECTRONIC AGE: AN APPRAISAL 57

teletext, a one-way text display. In 1979, the first that have been delivering remarkable e-news services
videotext system, Prestel, was launched, which over last several years. The rapid growth of e-
incorporated graphics and allowed interaction. The newspapers during the late 1990s was driven not just
1990s, however, have seen a renaissance in electronic by the belief that this was the market to get into, but
newspaper development. At the start of the 1990s, also by the fact that the technological means to do so
there was only one electronic newspaper in existence, was readily available. The establishment of new
the Star- Telegraph. By 1994, 40 electronic business practices, however, must have more to them
newspapers were found only in USA11 and today, than the satisfaction of some technical urge13.
there has been a tremendous growth in number of e- However, the question remains how well the e-
newspapers around the world. newspaper industry will survive when the source of
collecting revenue from the customers has not yet
Internet technology, in the way it accesses and
been guaranteed. Nevertheless, there has been a
presents information, is changing the rules of news
growing popularity for online news and it is presumed
publishing and distribution in many ways. The
that sooner or later, a flexible price mechanism may
challenge posed by the Internet for the news industry
follow the mounting popularity of concerned e-news
could mean a radical re-thinking of business
paper unlike some popular priced e-databases.
strategies, production practices and presentation
formats with implications for the economics of new
publishing12 and there has been a paradigm shift in the A few news-oriented websites
market of e-newspapers congruent with readers’
preference and choice for electronic information and All electronic newspapers have launched their
entertainment sources to that of their printed respective websites for the access to varied contents
counterparts. of news through Internet. A Google search retrieved
many news oriented websites. Some of them are
Kidon Media-Link, The Paperboy, News and listed in Table 1.
Newspapers Online, Los Angeles Times, New York
Daily News, Fox News, etc., are some of the leading
e-newspapers to name a few from around the world E-newspapers from India

Table 1—Global news oriented web sites


Sl No Global E-News Channels Websites
1 ABC News abcnews.go.com
2 BBC News news.bbc.co.uk/
3 CBS News www.cbsnews.com/
4 CNN www.cnn.com/
5 Fox News www.foxnews.com/
6 Los Angeles Times www.latimes.com/
7 MSNBC www.msnbc.msn.com/
8 New York Daily News www.nydailynews.com/
9 PBS News www.pbs.org/newshour/
10 Washington Post www.washingtonpost.com/
11 Aajtak News www.aajtak.com/
12 AIR www.allindiaradio.org/
13 BBC World news.bbc.co.uk/
14 CNBC TV www.cnbc.com/
15 DD News www.ddinews.gov.in/
16 NDTV News www.ndtv.com/
17 Sahara News www.saharasamay.com/
18 Star News starnews.indya.com/
19 TV 9 www.tv9.net/
20 PTI www.ptinews.com/
58 ANN. LIB. INF. STU., MARCH 2011

The demand for online newspapers has been existed for a few years and the media houses all
increasing for the past few years with the growing foresee revenues in this area. The main problem is the
reach of Internet by offering the latest breaking news revenue sharing between the content providers and the
with a minute update. The websites of some of the telecom operators, which today is in favor of the
leading Indian e-papers are given in Table 2. telecom operators. Another problem is the diversity of
devices and the lack of standards. Recently some of
Media houses: ongoing trends the media houses have found a way around that by
developing their own downloadable programs that
With the ever increasing popularity of mobile reading runs on any mobile phone. The media houses are
devices such as mobiles phones, net-books, and e- active in developing strategies for their mobile
readers, many publishers are seeing the value in channels and are currently trying to find suitable
producing an e-paper alongside their print editions in business models as well as to developing new and
order to boost subscriptions and readership14 and by value adding services17. However, there are certain
this way e-newspapers are gradually creeping into the pros and cons associated with these channels that are
academic scenario where the basic focus is on depicted in Table 3.
electronic news delivery by navigational support to
task oriented reading15 however, financial outcome This table depicts that no channel is free from pitfalls
remains one of the major concern for the media despite its prospective merits, however, in order to
houses. Some online newspaper vendors are engaged keep pace with the changing attitude of the readership
in generating revenue through advertisements and of late, media houses are moving fast towards the
sponsorships. In this context, it is recommended that adoption of some new models explored through e-
sponsorships may be processed differently than other medium replacing the printed ones.
internet ads and perhaps due to their subtle nature,
may confuse readers about the sponsor’s intent, thus Potential advantages
resulting in decreased processing of the sites content
The evolutionary changes to news publishing on the
and subsequently may affect the memory of the
internet invoke a different kind of response from
readers16.
readers. News consumers are encouraged by the
Since the media houses expect an ongoing trend in internet to become interactive consumers who are
decreased advertising revenues, they have to find new more demanding of the news provider. News
ways to profiting. The mobile channels have just consumers are empowered by electronic publishing,

Table 2—Indian frontline e-papers


E-Newspapers Website E-Newspapers Website

Accommodation epaper.accommodationtimes.com/ Asian Age epaper.asianage.com/


Times
Deccan www.dc-epaper.com/ Deccan Post epaper.deccanpost.in/
Chronicle
Financial e.mydigitalfc.com/ Financial Express epaper.financialexpress.com/
Chronicle
Free Press www.freepressjournal.in/ Himalaya Darpan epaper.himalayadarpan.com/
Journal
Global www.freepressjournal.in/ Indian Express epaper.indianexpress.com/
Education
Hindustan Times epaper.hindustantimes.com/ The Economic Times economictimes.indiatimes.com/
New Indian epaper.newindpress.com/ The Pioneer epaper.dailypioneer.com/
Express
Dainik Bhaskar digital.bhaskar.com/ The Telegraph epaper.telegraphindia.com/
Dainik Jagaran in.jagran.yahoo.com/epaper/ The Hindu epaper.thehindu.com/
Business www.bsepaper.com/ Times of India epaper.timesofindia.com/
Standard
Source: http://www.epapercatalog.com/india-epapers.php
PANDA & SWAIN: E-NEWSPAPERS AND E-NEWS SERVICES IN THE ELECTRONIC AGE: AN APPRAISAL 59

Table 3—Pros and cons of today’s media channels


Channels Pros Cons
Print No power consumption needed Old news
Shareable Waste of paper
Durable No interactivity
Portable Geographically limited
Dispensable
Scannable
Good overview

Online Up to date Unsure business model


Interactive Not mobile
Searchable Poor overview
Archiving
No space limitations
No geographical borders

Mobile Anytime, anywhere Expensive


Push and pull Too small
Immediacy Poor overview
Personalization Slow
High penetration Lack of standards

Source: Akesson and Ihlstrom (2006)

when it is done properly, introducing a new form and got other benefits like, cost-effectiveness, time saving
style18 which combines many of the qualities of utility, easy to use, and more.
printed paper with the advantages of electronic media- Adoption of RSS feeds
the ability to deliver new editions instantly and
without the need to print copies and transport them RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a document one
over distances to thousands of retail outlets and can download from the web which describes website
millions of subscribers. Above all, e-news papers content news, and resources from a specific website.
have gained immense popularity among the users due Users of RSS can have up-to-date content from
to the following advantages19: website and delivered to them and viewable via news
aggregator- software which is tailored to receive these
kinds of RSS feeds20. Many e-newspapers these days
1. The style and presentation of e-newspapers are
have already adopted RSS feeds to their specific news
much better than their printed equivalents;
items like, jobs, sports, foreign affairs, share markets,
2. In E-news papers, readers scroll the front page to etc. What the readers need to do is to subscribe to
get an overview of the contents of the news site some RSS feed readers like Blogsline, Google reader,
which is not possible through the printed news feed reader etc, and successfully install the concerned
papers; RSS feed reader on their PC to browse and access the
3. E- news papers offer links to available sections as news. Now- a-days many RSS feed readers are
well guide the readers to other relevant available to the readers free of cost. Therefore, there
supplementary information details for further should be no difficulties on the part of users to
information; download and install RSS feed readers on their PCs
for subsequent use of news fed with RSS.
4. Provide easy options for turning pages, linking to
dynamic indexes, searching, saving and printing,
setting personal preferences, closing news papers Influence of e-news groups
etc.; and E-news groups act like international bulletin boards.
5. E-newspapers offer multimedia and hyperlink Each group is a forum for a different subject, where a
features. subscriber can post his/her questions or answers.
However, it is expected from a user to go to the news
Additionally, the authors feel that, e-newspapers have
60 ANN. LIB. INF. STU., MARCH 2011

group himself to read it since news group posts are newsletters always involved large numbers of staff in
not automatically deposited into the subscription mail a news gathering capacity, considerable resources for
box. The mails from news groups do not get cluttered graphic design, and high capital resources for printing
and it can be easily regulated how often messages are and distribution. The Fridge did away with all these
read. There are hundreds of news group communities things23. The valid findings of this particular case
around the world. They centre on topics such as imply that sooner or later this example will be
computing, news and recreation, social and alternative followed by many organizations in different parts of
topics21. Therefore, specific groups can use their the world for ensuring a great economy in delivery of
relevant news pertaining to their respective fields in a internal news within a particular system.
most suitable and comprehensive manner.

Adopting e-newspaper readers


Other modes of accessing e-news

Reading e-newspapers can be easy, congenial, and There are some other ways of accessing e-news. Some
productive if the readers subscribe to some available of the key technological devices which have been
e-news paper readers. One such example is recently developed, of course with little commercial
‘Amazon’s kindle DX’. Amazon’s kindle DX is motif, for accessing e-news are depicted in Table 4.
basically an e-book reader which is also quite suitable
for reading e-newspapers. Newspapers are about text, Opportunities and challenges
and there’s only a moderate need for interactivity. For An e-news service has offered a handful of
each story, the reader views the headline and perhaps opportunities to the users’ community of late. It has
skims the opening paragraph, and if it doesn’t look helped to ensure simultaneous access at infinite points
interesting, moves on to the next story. However, the by saving of time and money. A user can go through
limitation with DX is that the screen technology is the e-version of the newspaper, which is the replica of
inherently too slow to support scrolling or fast page- the printed newspaper, by sitting at his/her desktop
turning, but it will do an adequate job for people who having internet connectivity at his/her own comfort
like to read most of the day’s news stories22.Besides, and convenience. Though people are gradually
there are some other useful e-newspaper readers adopting e-newspapers and e-news services, it has not
available in the market that the readers may quest for been able to fulfill some other advantages that they
ensuring qualitative and most effective e-newspaper have from printed news papers. Continuity of the
reading experience. news contents, scrolling of the pages, interruptions in
reading, hyper linking, animations and few other
Internal reading
issues need to be taken care of by the e-publishers.
In November 2006 the State Library of Victoria took Contextually, e-news publishers and electronic media
a bold new approach to its internal communications houses have to play the most crucial role in exploring
with the introduction of The Fridge – an online, daily the latest information communication technologies
“news” service. A small icon – in the shape of a with a view to satisfying the needs of e-newspaper
fridge – was posted on the desktop of every library readers from all possible angles so that they can really
staff member. Staff members were invited to click on enjoy reading e-newspapers. Moreover, e-news
the icon at any time, every day. When they did so, publishers and e-media houses should try to find the
their computer screen filled with the image of an ways and means in all possible directions to harness
actual fridge covered in “post-it” notes, photographs the revelations of information technology for
and postcards. The Fridge was updated each day at promoting the quality by enriching the scope,
3pm: a lead story composed in “hard news” style; a contents, coverage, and design of e-newspapers that
60 second video featuring library staff or visitors; are the biggest challenges to be resolved in the days
“post-it” note news of secondary importance; and an ahead.
average of five feature pieces per week (typically
about library people and programs). This content was
Conclusion
tantamount to a “real-time” news service – one that
offered staff, when they were ready, willing and able, The advent of electronic newspapers has really
access to a variety of information. Printing traditional offered us a great opportunity for making a swift
PANDA & SWAIN: E-NEWSPAPERS AND E-NEWS SERVICES IN THE ELECTRONIC AGE: AN APPRAISAL 61

Table 4—Latest devices used for aggregated access to e-news


Devices Features Release File size Price Platform

RssNews 1.3 RssNews is an easy-to-use mobile RSS 2009 42.0 KB USD $9.99 Windows
news reader where one can access to
RSS feeds scattered all around the world
and read latest news or blogs wherever
he or she is.

News Desktop With news Desktop Scrolling Bar, one 2005 2.4 MB USD $34.95 Windows, Windows
Scrolling Bar can get Worlds latest TV news right on Me, Windows NT,
his/her desktop, including top stories, Windows 2000,
sports, games, world news, health, Windows XP,
technology, business, and science. Windows 2003

ESobi Mobile ESobi mobile integrates handy Internet 2010 1.1 MB USD $5.99 -
(Android) 1.0 information management features to let
everyone enjoy, manage, and share their
favorite news, podcast, and personal
contents via mobile device. Whether you
are on the way to work, school, or
simply during leisure

m9P News m9P news Feeder provides world-wide 2009 156.0 KB USD $0.00 Windows
Feeder 1.0 daily updated news for technology,
entertainment, tournaments, and world (Free ware)
news from great sources directly to ones
desktop!

WebNews.TV WebNews.TV downloads the latest 2009 1.5 MB USD $19.95 Windows
1.0.4 news from RSS news feeds and Web
sites and then shows and pronounces
them in TV like screen. Funny
characters (for example - penguin)
entertain you while you are reading and
listening news headlines.

CoffeeCup It adds news from Yahoo, CNN, and 2007 5.3 MB USD $34.00 Windows, Windows
RSS News CNET using Flash to ones Website. It XP
Flash 4.5 uses RSS news Flash to announce news
and link to other pages.

Source: http://www.fileheap.com/dbquery/1/mobile+technology+news

review of things and day today events that are conveniently for creating an enjoyable news gathering
happening all around almost at a wink. Moreover, it experience among the readers of the electronic era.
has certainly enriched the horizon of newspaper The key challenge before the LIS professionals is to
reading by all class of people at a much faster pace increase the usage of e-news papers by its intended
which no other medium can address. It is the right audience.
time for the information professionals to apprise and
sensitize the readers’ community the latent
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