Reader Feedback: Online VS. Print

“In print it’s easy to feel you are at odds with readers because people will find one little thing wrong. So as a journalist you get defensive. The readers on a blog chime in and help you. They want you to get the story right.” Ben Mutzabaugh USAToday.com Business Travel Columnist (Courtesy of iStockphoto.com)

We all have an opinion or a certain degree of knowledge on different subjects and ideas. Although newsletters go back five centuries to the Renaissance Europe, America’s first newspaper debut in Boston in 1960 (entitled Publick Occurrences). Increasing dissemination of information has posed a significant financial threat to the newspaper as we can see from this years layoffs. However, Online media and blogs have given people a chance to share their voice with others. I do agree that it is sad to see print newspapers go. In high school, I remember riding on the subway (train 1 and 4) every morning with the New York Daily News and reading on the day’s top stories all before I got to school. I got what I needed to know and discussed any good stories with friends. I didn’t really use blogs that often then and frankly I enjoy having a hard copy of the newspaper. The dynamic nature of the web publishing, text linking, imaging, video, and finding news that’s personally is something the newspaper can’t rival.

It seems that with online publishing, blogs, and forums people typically know what their talking about and readers want to help get the story right. There is not as much tension between a journalist and a reader in online media because the web is an even playground. It brings things down to earth were we feel we can see, speak, and engage with the writer on the other end. Do you find yourself helping others or being helped in your blogs? Is it a benefit to the way you take in information VS. the traditional print?