The day is coming when online will replace print - maybe, according to Richard Burton, online editor of telegraph.co.uk.
The fact is, people will always want to read in print. The web is mainly used for browsing and anything worth reading properly is normally printed off, he commented today in another lecture in a series of visits from guest speakers.
The lecture and Q & A session that followed were incredibly useful and interesting and I was intrigued by Richard's attitudes and opinions on the media. It was interesting to hear how the website is trying to gear toward a younger generation, and encourage more women to log in. For a newspaper that is read mainly by mature gentlemen it was particularly interesting to hear how they would attract young women to the page, however, I do not believe that women are only interested in fashion and it will be worth following up what they do in the future.
From a magazine point of view feature writing does seem as though it is not for the web, something I thought to be true anyway, although it is worth considering whether magazines need to be doing more with their websites, in a bid for them to work alongside one another. I know for me many magazines do not do enough with the internet and do not make the most of the massive resource they have there to build up a larger readership.
Money seems to be a real focus of online journalism and "companies take online very seriously," said Richard. There is a huge potential for advertisement on websites and the telegraph have many partnership deals. It appeared to be very money orientated, as it would, but Richard, despite being the editor, seemed to have a lot of direct input to the site, rather than hiding away in meetings, which resulted in a very interesting lecture.
Richard mentioned that telegraph.co.uk are trying to reach a younger generation by bringing some more pop culture into their website. I wonder whether, over time, if the readership will increase and whether more young women will start logging in?
What do you think? Also, I don't know about you but I only check one website for news, bbc.co.uk. What would make you change the website you logged into for news? Anything in particular that would tempt you away from the norm?
H@yz
