NYT goes online, offline
I’m no fan of either the New York Times (which I find to have an incredibly self-satisfied tone to it, far beyond what’s appropriate; I loved the skewering of the NYT in “The Paper“), nor looking at the Internet on handheld devices (which just sucks in general, even on my otherwise-beloved Treo).
So it’s a strange moment of mental vertigo to realize the NYT may have put together the two tastes that don’t taste so great together and come up with something that may, just may, end up being pretty darn tasty: The NYT Web site on a useful and convenient handheld device.
Naturally, it’s a proprietary device, because God forbid the NYT gives the entire industry a shot in the arm by rolling out a technology that will help the entire sector to survive, but despite that (and its underlying Microsoftness, which suggests that the NYT may also have the honor of having the first handheld digital newspaper to get hacked six ways to Sunday), it looks pretty spiffy.
Because as swell as Internet news sites may be — and even modest little sites have seen their traffic go up like a rocket in recent years — you can’t take them on the subway with you and read them one-handed while you hold onto a support pole so that you don’t end up with your face in the armpit of a fellow commuter with only a vague understanding of basic hygiene. You can’t take them into the bathtub, where I like to do a lot of my reading, like the Golgafrincham B Ark captain in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. (I know: It’s amazing I’ve ever been romantically involved with any women, ever.)
The new Times Reader may have licked those issues. If the text zooms in to the readable level, we may be looking at the future of newspapers: A merger of the Internet datastream with true portability. It might not be the Times Reader unit itself — probably not, in fact — but a portable device that doesn’t suck is an absolute requirement. People don’t want to be tethered to their desks to get news and sending pictures and text over wireless Internet connections to a mass audience is a lot more practical than newspapers reinventing themselves as less-telegenic TV stations and transmitting video and audio everywhere instead.
It’s ironic that a newspaper that fought adding color like it was the equivalent of wearing a bright red tube top to a funeral for a ridiculous length of time would be the ones to push into this arena in a big way. (I would have bet on the Mercury News, myself.) But I’m glad it’s here. This feels like the way forward to me, especially when the ease of use is incorporated into other digital devices like a PDA or cell phone.
