Printosaurous 2.0

[Dan O'Brien]

So, newspapers have potential to get back to the forefront of breaking news with their online presence, and Richard Burton’s been leading the way. And if this is what saves print, then this is a good thing – although to be honest I agree with Cara, in that the paper doesn’t really need saving any time soon. But their websites might.

The Telegraph, for example, has a breaking news scrolling
header, which even actually works occasionally. But it sits there stuck on one story – not exactly ‘updated every minute of every day’. The Times Online has a pointless bit which scrolls through the headlines you can already see underneath. The Guardian seems to be doing well, but you get the general idea… they’ve all got good bits – even the Daily Express – and between them there’s a formidable online breaking news presence.

But there’s a bigger challenge than practice. Like most of the population,
you’ve probably never heard of RSS let alone know what it stands for, and you take a couple of minutes during the lunch hour to get the headlines. And where is the first – and probably only – place you look? Can you honestly say its not the BBC?



What if – and this is a gargantuan if – they merged their efforts for breaking news. I wonder how many hits a collaborative, aggregative “britishpressonline.co.uk” would get if they pooled their efforts on breaking stories – keeping the by-lines (and therefore competitiveness) but holding a united online breaking news presence?



As I said, a big if. But its just a thought.