Monday, November 17, 2008

The Omaha World-Herald and Convergence.

These two things should probably not be used together in the same sentence. The World-Herald's website makes it very clear that all of this newfangled technology is well and good, but that you should really just go buy a hard copy. There are even links to the subscription page displayed rather prominently at the bottom of the home page. The site, while visually well designed, is virtually indistinguishable from a daily copy of the paper scanned into digital form. The two concessions to the possibilities offered by the online format are a rotating list of video clips on the main page, none of which are truly detailed enough to be called anything but hooks for the written story, and a simple weather forecast in the upper right of the main page. While the World-Herald is a daily newspaper, and as such is truly targeted only at those old enough to be making house and utility payments, the lack of visionary thinking and waste of technological potential on their website is somewhat surprising.

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