No pop-up ads here

Hurray! No pop-up ads here!

How often can you say that with satisfaction when you’re on the internet these days? Not too often, I’m guessing, unless you’ve programmed your web browser to effectively block off those irritating pop-up ads on your computer system. Even then, you’re likely to have a face-off with the shoshkeles every now and then.

But pop-up ads and shoshkeles aren’t the only irritants while surfing the internet for news and information. There are other drawbacks too, which we grudgingly accept everyday. Drawbacks, perhaps, not in the pure sense of the term; but definitely considered as drawbacks when compared to the old-age system of gathering news and information through the print medium – typically through newspapers and magazines.

Although not in India, but globally, the print medium is losing its readership, with more and more people switching to the internet for their regular dose of news and information – and much much more. I had blogged about this a couple of years ago, but the bitter truth is, today, globally, the print medium is under threat from the online industry.

What should the print industry do in response to this threat?

Well, here’s a story: In an article I read recently on the National Press Club website – titled Newspapers are fact-checked, hand-delivered, no pop-up ads. What’s not to love? – Ken Paulson of Newseum defended the print medium, offering an interesting and humorous perspective of the advantages the newspaper offers to its readers vis-à-vis the online medium.

Paulson wonders what would have happened “if Gutenberg had invented a digital modem rather than a printing press; and that for centuries all our information had come online. Further, imagine if we held a press conference announcing the invention of an intriguing new product called the ‘newspaper’. That press conference might go something like this:

We’re pleased to announce a new product that will revolutionize the way you access information. It will save you time and money and keep you better informed than ever before.

Just consider the hours you’ve spent on the internet looking for information of interest to you. We’ve hired specialists who live and work in your hometown to cull information sources and provide a daily report tailored to your community, your friends and your neighbors.

We also know that you sometimes wonder whether you can trust the information you see online. We plan to introduce a painstaking new process called ‘fact-checking’ in which we actually verify the information before we pass it along to you.

In addition to saving time online, you’ll also save money. You won’t need those expensive color ink cartridges or reams of paper because information will be printed out for you in full color every day.

You’ll also save money on access charges and those unpleasant fights over who gets time on the computer because this product will be physically delivered to your home at the same time each day, for less than what you would tip the guy from Pizza Hut.

You worry about your kids stumbling across porn on the internet, but this product is pre-screened and guaranteed suitable for the whole family.

And in a security breakthrough, we guarantee newspapers to be absolutely virus-free, and promise the elimination of those annoying pop-up ads.

It’s also the most portable product in the world, and doesn’t require batteries or electricity. And when the flight attendant tells you to turn off your electronic devices, you can actually turn this on, opening page after page without worrying about interfering with the plane’s radar.

To top it all off, you don’t need a long-term warranty or service protection program. If you’re not happy with this product on any day, we'll redesign it and bring you a new one the next day.”

There’s, of course, more to this story. To read the entire Ken Paulson article on the National Press Club website, go here.

[Citation: Newspapers are fact-checked, hand-delivered, no pop-up ads. What’s not to love? by Ken Paulson of Newseum, posted on the National Press Club website under NPC Wire New & Noteworthy by Sylvia Smith on 6 February 2009.]