Something I'm often asked in casual conservation is whether I think a day will come when no newspapers will be published on paper.
Ten years ago, I could give my answer without hesitation - absolutely not.
With each year, though, the question grows more complex. I still believe there's always going to be a market for a hard-copy newspaper, but the size of that market very well could be much smaller. How soon such a shift could progress is tough to predict.
The technology that's available today - high-speed wireless Internet service, mobile phones that double as personal computers, audio and video content that doesn't take an hour to download - is significantly more advanced that it was even five years ago. And newspaper Web sites are much more robust, too.
Our site, www.auburnpub.com, has certainly evolved. The changes just in the past three years have been remarkable, and the traffic we're getting to the site reflects it.
But we've also been careful not to put everything in the print edition online. While there's certainly overlap, we aim to create unique content for both products so, hopefully, plenty of people get the print edition but also check us out on the Web.
So to see our full complement of local news and sports photos, to read public record information such as arrests and judgments, to view our weekly business page, you've needed to get your hands on a print edition.
Until now.
Sort of.
Perhaps if you've been online lately you've noticed the button for our newest product, the e-Citizen. This feature allows people to access high-quality, searchable images of the actual printed pages of The Citizen. It's a product an increasing number of newspapers are offering because there's proven demand.
Unlike auburnpub.com, e-Citizen is not free. But it's a great option for a number of people who value the print edition of The Citizen but, for one reason or another, would benefit from getting the pages over the computer.
Out-of-town subscribers who get the paper through the mail, for example, no longer need to wait for the postal service to get the paper to their home. Some readers might like to get the Sunday hard-copy paper, but get the rest of the week online. Some people might just have a dislike for paper and ink - this offers a nice solution.
I found a benefit to e-Citizen a couple of weeks ago myself. I'm one of those hard-copy newspaper people, of course. I love the feel of the paper in my hands, and being able to flip pages around easily, fold sections and tear out articles. But it was pretty cool during a recent out-of-town vacation to start each day by logging onto my laptop and seeing what we had on the front page and how it was designed.
So check it out. You can go directly to eedition.auburnpub.com or go to our regular Web site and click on the e-Citizen icon in the menu bar.
Executive editor Jeremy Boyer's columns appear Saturdays in The Citizen and he can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 231 or jeremy.boyer@lee.net
With each year, though, the question grows more complex. I still believe there's always going to be a market for a hard-copy newspaper, but the size of that market very well could be much smaller. How soon such a shift could progress is tough to predict.
The technology that's available today - high-speed wireless Internet service, mobile phones that double as personal computers, audio and video content that doesn't take an hour to download - is significantly more advanced that it was even five years ago. And newspaper Web sites are much more robust, too.
Our site, www.auburnpub.com, has certainly evolved. The changes just in the past three years have been remarkable, and the traffic we're getting to the site reflects it.
But we've also been careful not to put everything in the print edition online. While there's certainly overlap, we aim to create unique content for both products so, hopefully, plenty of people get the print edition but also check us out on the Web.
So to see our full complement of local news and sports photos, to read public record information such as arrests and judgments, to view our weekly business page, you've needed to get your hands on a print edition.
Until now.
Sort of.
Perhaps if you've been online lately you've noticed the button for our newest product, the e-Citizen. This feature allows people to access high-quality, searchable images of the actual printed pages of The Citizen. It's a product an increasing number of newspapers are offering because there's proven demand.
Unlike auburnpub.com, e-Citizen is not free. But it's a great option for a number of people who value the print edition of The Citizen but, for one reason or another, would benefit from getting the pages over the computer.
Out-of-town subscribers who get the paper through the mail, for example, no longer need to wait for the postal service to get the paper to their home. Some readers might like to get the Sunday hard-copy paper, but get the rest of the week online. Some people might just have a dislike for paper and ink - this offers a nice solution.
I found a benefit to e-Citizen a couple of weeks ago myself. I'm one of those hard-copy newspaper people, of course. I love the feel of the paper in my hands, and being able to flip pages around easily, fold sections and tear out articles. But it was pretty cool during a recent out-of-town vacation to start each day by logging onto my laptop and seeing what we had on the front page and how it was designed.
So check it out. You can go directly to eedition.auburnpub.com or go to our regular Web site and click on the e-Citizen icon in the menu bar.
Executive editor Jeremy Boyer's columns appear Saturdays in The Citizen and he can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 231 or jeremy.boyer@lee.net
