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Friday, January 30, 2009

Media This Will Totally Save the Media

Posted by Paul Constant on Fri, Jan 30, 2009 at 2:01 PM

Ladies and gentlemen, there have been many jokes about it, but now it is here for real...I think:

The Printed Blog.

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The Printed Blog is an independent media outlet that aggregates user-generated content from the Internet and publishes it twice daily via print. The result is a revolutionary newspaper that reads and functions like a web feed - yet can still be enjoyed on the train or spread across the breakfast table, for an uninterrupted, pleasurably tactile experience.

The selection of content in The Printed Blog is based solely on the votes of readers and their geographic location. In such a way, The Printed Blog revolts against the top-down, 'one size fits all' model of newsprint, as we know it. Instead of one paper serving hundreds of thousands of people, as is often the case, The Printed Blog publishes hundreds or even thousands of highly-localized editions based on what a community declares is important to them. The papers are distributed to neighborhood pickup points in A.M. and P.M. editions, and will incorporate rapid turnaround reader comments.

The 26th Story says that the Printed Blog hit the streets in San Francisco and Chicago on the 28th. It's a bad sign when nobody can tell if your business model is a joke or not.

Comments (12) RSS

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Honestly, if the PI or even the NYT had a print-it-out-at-home option like this (obviating the need for the expense of printing and delivery), I would totally do it just to be able to read the news at the breakfast table.

It's not a joke: it's the future.

Posted by Simac on January 30, 2009 at 2:15 PM

Yeah... I'm not sure this is the right model, but, I definitely print out longer articles that I'm interested in when a blog links to them. Partly because I can't take 15 solid minutes out of the work day to read and partly because my eyes get tired reading something long on a screen....

Posted by Julie in Eugene on January 30, 2009 at 2:19 PM

@1, this specific business model relies on dropoff/pickup points, not home printout - but a newsfeed that you could schedule your computer to download and print 10 minutes before you wake in the morning would be a pretty good idea. Bonus points if the service is customizable vis a vis 'I want 10 pages of 30% local, 20% national, and 50% world news.'

the problem being I imagine it is significantly more expensive to print at home rather than on a press.

Posted by rococo on January 30, 2009 at 2:30 PM

Isn't the point of the internet (and RSS feeds etc) that you can find things that interest you without being bogged down in topics you couldn't give a damn about? If my local "edition" is two pages about the local schools and traffic and so on and ten pages of celebrity gossip and Mariners fun facts, then it's a waste of time and resources. I could have gone to this blog and that news site and not printed a damn thing. Seriously, I have a printer here that's just gathering dust because I don't print anything (and print cartridges are a total rip off).

Plus, think of all the posts and streams that are links to YouTube or Flickr. You wake up in the morning, get the print out, see that you have got to check out this video of a guy doing a vertical jump on a Big wheel and then go back to your computer to click on the link where you probably would have seen it in the first place.

Although it could keep you from being rickrolled...

Posted by Chris B on January 30, 2009 at 2:40 PM

This would be great if you could get a filtered version where all the neocons posts were removed. And the repetitive ones as well.

Posted by Will in Seattle on January 30, 2009 at 2:42 PM

I used to like reading actual newspapers instead of reading on the computer, but since I got an iPhone it's so much more pleasant and convenient than reading a physical newspaper even.

Thanks for the good Slog iphone site btw. ( slog.thestranger.com/iphone )

Posted by jrrrl on January 30, 2009 at 2:43 PM

Ditto for the BlackBerry; same rationale.

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty on January 30, 2009 at 2:45 PM

The next time I read The Stranger on the bus ride home, I hope to have an uninterrupted, pleasurably tactile experience.

This idea does sound crazy to me as well, but as I won't be able to afford an iPhone any time soon and don't enjoy spending much of my non-work hours in front of a computer, I'll keep rooting for print.

Posted by madamecrow on January 30, 2009 at 2:51 PM

@6 I use the Slog iPhone site at work - since there's no ads and the layout is minimal, if someone looks over my shoulder here at the office it looks like I'm actually still working.

Posted by Hernandez on January 30, 2009 at 2:53 PM

@9: And there's the rub: There are no ads. And of course you don't pay a dime. So just how is The Stranger (or any other publication) going to keep providing you with this wonderful world of news and opinion?

Posted by rjh on January 30, 2009 at 3:08 PM

@10 - um, bump up ad rates for hookers?

Posted by Will in Seattle on January 30, 2009 at 3:49 PM

Shhh - they're not hookers, they're "massage therapists."

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty on January 30, 2009 at 4:09 PM