Laying out the Times

Laying out the Times

Not to be obvious, however, while looking at the two media’s for the New York Times, print edition and online one thing you notice is that the news changes more often with the online version. I think that one of the greatest advances of online news is that we receive stories faster. No longer do you to accept that this story made the paper today and anything else that happens will be shelved and have to wait till tomorrow’s paper. No longer will that be the case, and dare I say it, in the end the fact that emerging news can get to readers quicker will be the biggest thing that will hurt print papers the most.
As far as the layouts are concerned the New York Times Website and Printed Paper are formatted in similar ways. I believe that this is done to make people who grew up with the paper feel like they can navigate the site well. Things on the site are sorted by what area or field they fit in to, for example: Business or The Arts, just like in the Print edition of the Times.
One thing that a paper always wants to be careful with is how it places stories. Placement of a story can reflect what the editors think is most important and not necessarily what a reader thinks is most important. In regards to the Front Page/ Main Page the Times in print seems to give more of a taste of what will appear in each section of the paper. The Main Page on the Website dealt too much in one area, politics and the war. For example in September 10th’s paper, both main photographs deal with health related issues, but outside of that the page differs. Although dealing with politics and the war, the FrontPage times still includes many other aspects that the website does not give prevalence to on its main page.
When I left the main page one area I wanted to look closely at was the Business Day section since business relates with the new media realm. Again I will reference September 10th’s paper as example. In Monday’s business section there is a huge illustration with the article about how this lawyer named Kevin Morris helped the creators of South Park receive 50 percent stake in the cartoon’s success on the web and other emerging media. However, in the online business section the article is half way down the page where you have to scroll down to get to it. In addition instead of a large illustration to gain your interest featuring the characters of South Park there is a small picture with the lawyers face. And I am sorry but that is not something that is going to grab your attention right away, even if the article is more about his endeavors in the new media realm than South Park and its creators.
In reality the point I am trying to get across is this, both forms of the times have there benefits and disadvantages. Yeah it’s nice to sign in to newyorktimes.com and read the paper on your computer and see emerging stories, but sometimes its just best to open up the printed paper, do the crossword puzzle, and read.