In The News

Fox News Website: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,260583,00.html
Buffalo News: "U.N. calls for prompt solution to Iran-Britain Dispute" A4 3/30/2007
Buffalo News website http://www.buffalonews.com/

When comparing the top story of British sailors and marines, which has been pretty much everywhere this last week, I found a number of sources to compare the story. Being that the issue has been around for a week there are many different spins and topics that the article could cover. For instance FOX News (which in my humble opinion is not the best news source) had a pretty good website and their article focused on the actual occurrence of "who, what, where, when and how" the British Troops became captive and what the circumstances for their captivity are. The article was longer than most Internet articles and displayed all on one page without a link to another page. Often I have noticed, to fit more on the Internets cover page news sources will have a headline with a link, so they an get more top stories in your view. This article covers a good portion of the page, I was impressed. Another great point of viewing Internet articles is that there is always room for pictures, that doesn't always happen in print. Another key difference is that on the Internet you can often find related articles or hyperlinks to other sources that talk about this topic.

The Buffalo News article on the other hand, I am sure has already run articles about the conditions of their captivity and a detailed report of what had happened that day. The Buffalo News on the other hand took some new factors into consideration, such as the U.N.'s role and what the course of action is to free the solders. Another side of the story was put on the table by looking at Manouchehr Mottaki, Iran's Foreign Minister, had to say about he issue. By looking at all side of the story and having the most up to date information makes the Buffalo News appear to be more reputable. As far as layout and presentation is concerned there is not as much space to layout the article, but they do get it on one page with a small but meaningful picture that clearly displays the social climate in Iran. The picture in the FOX News website was still a beautiful picture of the vessel that the troops were on, but did not have the same emotion in the photo like the Buffalo News photo choice had.

When comparing the two medias next to one another, well that's just it it is a bit harder to carry your PC with you isn't it- or is it. A lot of people are using laptops and blackberry to get their information why do we need print then? The format of print news is nostalgic and it is still a staple for many. Those who opt to carry a .5 lbs. paper compared to a 5lbs. lap top might have something to do with it too. I suppose it is up to the persons individual preference. Although leaders of the print industry such as Sulzberger, owner, chairman and publisher of The New York Times sees things moving to the Internet.(http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/822775.html)

“Given the constant erosion of the printed press, do you see the New York Times still being printed in five years?
“I really don’t know whether we’ll be printing the Times in five years, and you know what? I don’t care either,” he says.
Sulzberger is focusing on how to best manage the transition from print to Internet.
“The Internet is a wonderful place to be, and we’re leading there,” he points out.
The Times, in fact, has doubled its online readership to 1.5 million a day to go along with its 1.1 million subscribers for the print edition.”

Frankly I am stuck in print and really do not want to adopt to the Internet for all of my news information but it seems that we might be headed that way weather we like it or not, but at least there are a lot of benefits, not to mention from a business perspective how much cash it would save the leaders of the news to forgo printing! It could really change the news industry.