Thursday 4 September 2008

Print versus Internet

Sometimes there is no substitute for print.

I read the IHT online this morning, but later, again, I perused the print edition which arrives here with the post at 1.oo pm, to see what I've missed.

An article about the sentencing of two Israeli border guards, the Polish government's decision to investigage the death of a Polish general in 1943, 14 immigrants dead trying to reach the Canaries, serious talk of a one state solution among Palestinian moderates all failed to show up on my daily article index on www.iht.com

Perhaps they are on yesterday's www.iht.com article index (haven't got time to check; not the point) and ran in today's 4 star edition because they came in too late for yesterday's 4 star edition.

But the point is, I always use the print as my touchstone, even if I look online for my pet project for 2008 called A Place in the Auvergne.

One other article that I didn't see on www.iht.com nor could I find when I searched both the NYTimes website and the IHT website, was a fascinating article on the problems posed by U.S debt to the Chinese economy, filed by the Keith Bradsher in Hong Kong (page 11, today's business section, Atlantic 4 star edition).

Where has it gone?

Who knows, and that's not the point either.

The point is, that to get maximum value out of the IHT I use both web - to drill down into short stories in the print version, often wire stories given a para or two only - and the print to make sure I haven't missed anything on www.iht.com.

I also find the IHT print edition headlines to be much better, and often not the same, than the headlines of www.iht.com which often reveal a lack of editorial savvy if they haven't used the same headline as print.

So it's not an either or for me, it's a both.

What would be helpful would be if EVERY story published in the IHT print editions, no matter what print edition of any given day, makes it into the daily article index of www.iht.com of that day.


Now where can I get that Bradsher article online or am I being stupid? Probably the latter.


A Place in the Auvernge
International Herald Tribune
IHT
New York Times
NYT

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