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Kindle DX vs. Wall Street Journal: Does page layout matter?
Browsing a newspaper on an Amazon Kindle DX has a lot of advantages over doing it for real. Riding the subway into Manhattan this morning, I managed to get through a dozen articles in the Wall Street Journal without flipping a single page. But as I stumbled upon a piece on Chinese drywall while clicking around the Personal Journal section, it dawned on me that this is the kind of article I probably wouldn't even notice in the print edition.
Why? Simple: Page layout. The design of the page — including position, headline size, and the number of columns — would have subtly encouraged me to read other articles before that one, or possibly skip it altogether. Curious, I picked up a hard copy of the Journal to confirm if the paper's diligent copy editors working late last night agreed with me that Chinese drywall was, well, rather dry. And there it was, stuck on the bottom of page 2 with a fairly small headline.
Of course, those visual cues are lost on the Kindle's screen; the drywall story is the top story on page 2 of the PJ section on the DX. Stories are typically ordered first to last in a section, with few hints as to their relative importance. Sure, the ones up top are on the front page of that section, but beyond that all articles are created equal in the Kindleverse.
Does this matter? Do the benefits of a gadget that does away with paper, delivery, and all the hassle and expense that go with them outweigh the tradeoff in graphic design? And what can the next generation of e-readers do to improve in this area? Browse the photos beyond the Continue jump that compare the paper journal with the DX's section lists, and let us know what you think in the comments.
Front Page
Inside Marketplace section
Personal Journal front page
Page 4-5 of Marketplace section
Size comparison
By Dan at 6:30 PM ON 07/01/09
No, print looks way better than Kindle. Sorry. It might work for books, but nor for press. Not like that. Kindle it's dull, lame, even plain ugly.
By Andrys at 6:52 PM ON 07/01/09
While I prefer the newspaper layout I also know how difficult that is to present on a limited e-ink e-reader. I think TechCrunch's planned Crunchpad should attract a fair number of people even though ti's pretty limited in other ways.
I think they're planning a $300-$350 pricing.
http://www.editorsweblog.org/multimedia/2009/06/introducing_crunchpad_the_latest_e-reade.php
Also, are you actually saying it's BETTER when the newspaper makes your reading choices for you?
Most I know are actually happy they are reading many articles they would not have noticed in the hard-copy editions.
Andrys -
kindleworld.blogspot.com
By Mr. Gumsandals at 7:22 PM ON 07/01/09
Get with the program, guys, this is the future of the newspaper as we know it. I read the morning paper every day and will hate to see it disappear which it will inevitably do. The only thing holding this sea change back is its cost.
By kdsvs1999 at 1:05 AM ON 07/02/09
Didn't care for the kindle until I tried it and WSJ. Found it great! Quick and easy to review whole set of articles and read what I want. Yes there is always room for improvement but it's a pretty good step to the digitial world.
By BillBosox at 9:09 AM ON 07/02/09
I to would say that it is better to read the articles that I want not what the newspaper headlines!!! I am finding that I read much more of the Boston Globe because I "see" all the aritcles appear, my wife said "all you do is read now!" I think she meant that in a postive eay!!
By Scott W. at 9:44 AM ON 07/02/09
What we have to understand is that advertising is the life blood of any newspaper. When a device comes around that can have creative advertising layouts as well as well designed pages. That money will flow into those channels. Until that happens the Kindle (or any other epaper device) will play only a secondary role in newspaper readership. Yes I agree that this is the future of newspapers. However, we have some hurdles to clear before anyone should get excited. The moment full color page layout, video enabled foldable/rollable screens are available. Sign me up! Its not that far!
By Giggity at 11:30 AM ON 07/02/09
Scott...have no fear...I am sure very soon that even the Kindle will have annoying pop-up ads flying across the screen at super-short intervals.
Unfortunately, marketing and advertising agencies have an uncanny ability to annoy the frig out of us.
We will soon long for the days of tv ads that only came on every 10min vs the sheer volume of ads that hit us electronically on the web (and soon to be Kindle-type apps).
By Giggity at 11:31 AM ON 07/02/09
Scott...have no fear...I am sure very soon that even the Kindle will have annoying pop-up ads flying across the screen at super-short intervals.
Unfortunately, marketing and advertising agencies have an uncanny ability to annoy the frig out of us.
We will soon long for the days of tv ads that only came on every 10min vs the sheer volume of ads that hit us electronically on the web (and soon to be Kindle-type apps).
By Deathwish at 2:25 AM ON 07/05/09
I have to say the thing that annoys me the most, about dvice.com, is that they keep throwing Kindle back up on the page like it were something new. I hope that this site doesn't consider this to be a worth while inovation, and that it really just has to do with Amazon paying the website a considerable amount of money to keep reposting it as a technology that anyone would want. It's surprisingly lacking in abilities, and not worth the money. I would say maybe it would be worth something if there were more funcitons/abilities, but then why don't you just buy a blackberry or an iphone?
By Kindle purchase at 5:04 AM ON 08/05/09
The Kindle is a popular E-book reader sold by Amazon, but there are similar e-book readers available like the Sony e-Book Reader .
on your cellphone!
Text DVICE to 72434
editor@dvice.com
Kindle purchase:
The Kindle is a popular E-book reader sold by Amazon, but there are similar e-book readers available like the Sony ...More »