Newspapers have existed in the United States for centuries and so have played an important role for people who want to be knowledgeable about what is going on in their communities or in the world for a very long time. Over time newspapers have changed in style and format. On relatively recent and dramatic change is the opportunity to view a newspaper either in one's hand or online. The two formats have different characteristics, which make both formats potentially valuable to readers.
Petersburg Times can be bought from street venders, from curbside machines, in many stores, or by subscription delivered to one's home. However, a person can save that money and view the newspaper online for free, making one wonder why someone would pay for it. However, the printed version has strengths the online version does not possess.
The great advantage of the printed version is, paradoxically, speed. It is faster to turn the page of a printed newspaper than it is to go to a new page on many computers. In addition, taking a closer look at something is easier than it is on the computer screen. It is also easier to browse the paper form of the paper. One can pick up the printed paper, scan the front page for articles the person might want to read, read one or two front page stories, and then turn easily to the person's favorite part of the paper, which might be sports, comics, or informational articles. In the entertainment section, a person might be looking for a movie when an announcement about an interesting show at a local museum catches the reader's eye.
By comparison, it is a bit cumbersome to read the paper casually online. The format is different. The viewer does not see the front page, but instead sees the first thirty or so words on a variety of topics. On September 18, the most prominent feature online was the picture of a Muslim child blowing on a Jewish Shofar as a demonstration of interfaith contact. While this is an intriguing picture, if the person wanted hard news first, they would find that more easily on the printed first page of the same paper. The onscreen first page also included the beginning of an article about the local football team an introduction to an article about demographic shifts in local election polls.
Both papers, then, invite the reader to scan for articles of interest, but in the online version, the editor of the web page has made more decisions for the reader. Considerably less text is on the first page, probably because not everyone has markedly large computer screens that could hold a full page of text. In addition, for many people it may be easier to read on paper than online. A reproduction of the front page of a newspaper might be harder to take in than the printed version, possibly because the printed version can be manipulated to make it easier to focus just on one part of it.
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