Ouch! Media dinos at work? Clippy W. Post mobile edition slashes 2,050-word story to 423 words
I hope the marketing brains at the Washington Post are happy.
They’re well on their way to getting me to stop reading a newspaper I’ve been following for decades.
My favorite way to enjoy a newspaper these days is on a mobile computer, a nice break from my desktop. I’m tired of overgrown dead-tree editions invading our household. And my wife fears that she may be allergic, literally, to newspaper ink—just as Carly’s mother already is.
This morning I was 423 words into a book-related story, on Jenna Bush and her new book about a struggling HIV-positive Latin-American teenager, when the 2,050-word article abruptly stopped.
Post-22 strikes again
Yes, if you’ve been following the TeleBlog, you already know what happened. The Posties told me at the end of the 423 words that I’d have to leave the mobile edition and go to the usual Washingtonpost.com for the rest of the story. Media dinos at work, gnawing away? Unlike the cases reported earlier, we’re not just talking about a few stray missing paragraphs, but most of the bleepin’ story.
Nice going, guys. I own a Palm TX, a Nokia 770 and a Windows CE tablet. Every one of them chokes up on the bloated pages at Washingtonpost.com, where, by the way, the tablet also has problems with the Post’s password system. In honor of Catch-22, I’ve got a new name for the logic, or lack of it, at work here. Post-22.
What are the motives of the Post and the other dailies which try these stupid newspaper tricks? It’s not as if I’m a freeloader. I’d be willing to pay a reasonable subscription charge for a mobile edition with all the stories present and run at full length. Or if the Post really wants to learn from the New York Times Select debacle, it will avoid a charge and instead rely just on ads. The advertising could be highly localized. My earlier complaint, rather than just criticizing the Post, offered some specific revenue-related suggestions.
Smarter RSSing also needed
On a related matter, the Post also needs to smarten up about RSS feeds and give us full-length articles there, too.
It’s obvious. Why doesn’t the Post—clueful about much else, as shown by its online blogs and wealth of other content—get it? Look, guys, you’re not longer so indispensable. I’m already spending as much or more time with the robust mobile edition of the New York Times than I am with you, even though I live just a few miles away. And if need be, I’ll rely on radio news for local stories and even use my desktop for articles from other local news sources. Such is the extent of my frustration over the Post’s contempt for mobile devices and their users. The Post is bigger and richer and supposedly smarter than the local competition. I expect more from it. I’m really rooting for the Post to get this right!
Important detail: I assume that some marketing dimwits are the villains here rather than the editorial side of the online or offline Post. I’ve emailed Jim Brady, executive editor of Washingtonpost.com, to see if he can tell us what’s happening and ideally speak up against it. Meanwhile I may complain to a major journalism site or two. Clippy mobile editions are bad for the the public and the newspaper business as a whole, not just the Post.
“Practicing What We Preach” Department: Yes, you can read the equivalent of a “mobile edition” of the TeleBlog. It isn’t as well-done as it could be, but then our formal IT budget is $0.
Disclosure: I approached the Post some months ago, in connection with the OpenReader initiative in which I’m no longer involved (even though OpenReader founder Jon Noring is very welcome to contribute to the TeleBlog, just as other top e-book experts are). My suggestion was that the Post distribute mobile editions not just on the Web but also as e-book-like files, so people could enjoy them away from home or public WiFi connections. I still have that vision, except I believe the newspapers should instead use the IDPF‘s .epub format.
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