Christian Science Monitor
The Christian Science Monitor will be the first of the "major" newspaper to stop having a print edition and will be switching to the web: See Monitor shifts from print to Web-based strategy. They will be switching in April 2009. The Christian Science Monitor is planning to print a weekly version of the newspaper. The cost of producing, printing and distributing a physical daily newspaper is very high. Cutting all of those costs will remove many constraints, both physical and financial. On the web, there is no printing cost, no paper, and space is: "free and unlimited"1.
My first reaction is: "Another paper biting the dust!" Upon further thoughts, I think that it's a great boon for photography and photographers. The Christian Science Monitor will "consume" and buy more news photos than before.
As far as I know, the Christian Science Monitor does not have any photographer on staff. Currently they are using the reporter to "snap photos", and they buy a few other photos. They will have to upgrade their visual content, and will have to buy news/reports photos.
Now, in the printed world, they have a major photo with the main title on the front page and a couple of smaller photos for the rest of the front page. After that, they have a few photos around the paper. When they will be switching to their web/Internet edition, they will have to have at least a photo for almost every single news item that they report on. They will be also able to have many photos, instead of only 1 on the printed paper.
Photography will become a newspaper competitive advantage. There are already a few that consider photography a competitive advantage:
1 almost ↑
The Christian Science Monitor will be the first of the "major" newspaper to stop having a print edition and will be switching to the web: See Monitor shifts from print to Web-based strategy. They will be switching in April 2009. The Christian Science Monitor is planning to print a weekly version of the newspaper. The cost of producing, printing and distributing a physical daily newspaper is very high. Cutting all of those costs will remove many constraints, both physical and financial. On the web, there is no printing cost, no paper, and space is: "free and unlimited"1.
My first reaction is: "Another paper biting the dust!" Upon further thoughts, I think that it's a great boon for photography and photographers. The Christian Science Monitor will "consume" and buy more news photos than before.
As far as I know, the Christian Science Monitor does not have any photographer on staff. Currently they are using the reporter to "snap photos", and they buy a few other photos. They will have to upgrade their visual content, and will have to buy news/reports photos.
Now, in the printed world, they have a major photo with the main title on the front page and a couple of smaller photos for the rest of the front page. After that, they have a few photos around the paper. When they will be switching to their web/Internet edition, they will have to have at least a photo for almost every single news item that they report on. They will be also able to have many photos, instead of only 1 on the printed paper.
Photography will become a newspaper competitive advantage. There are already a few that consider photography a competitive advantage:
1 almost ↑
