Let's review the news report of China’s first electronic newspaper when it first appeared:
At 5 a.m. on April 14, 2006, the world’s first e-newspaper was born. It shows the words “Liberation Dailyâ€, the newspaper of Shanghai Municipality’s organizing committee. The first batch of five readers—two IT scientists and three senior news readers—experienced this wonderful reading trip and read a full-scale e-newspaper launched by Jiefang Daily Newspaper Group on a global scale for the first time.
The electronic newspaper reader is like a pocket book. It is small and light and can be held by hand. It is convenient to touch the button in the upper right of the e-newsletter, and the words “Downloading Jfdaily†(download “Liberation Dailyâ€) appear on the display. After 45 seconds, the download is complete, and the touch pen taps the folder to “reduce†the “Liberation Dailyâ€. The front page is completely and clearly presented. Illustrations and articles are of interest to which article, as long as you tap the article with a touch pen, the page is immediately refurbished and you can read it carefully. This report made media people happy and inspired the media industry. Under the impact of the emerging media, the newspaper industry in Jilai also took the train to spring.
A small step in the media of technology
In 2005, China’s newspaper industry suffered an unprecedented impact. The past glory seems to have become a long-standing myth. How the newspaper industry looks for new ways out of pain becomes the focus of attention. Following the mobile phone report, electronic newspapers launched by the Liberation Daily newspaper group finally appeared among the thousands of people.
According to Yin Minghua, president of the Liberation Daily, in the second half of 2005, when the Philips Group launched an e-reader, it attracted their attention. The Liberation Daily newspaper group began to contact scientists and their teams who possessed this original technology. The scientists showed them a new type of reader, whose display screen is not traditional LCD technology but uses electronic paper display technology. Compared with the traditional LCD display, the electronic newspaper can avoid the reader's visual fatigue caused by continuous refreshing. At the same time, because there is no backlight problem, it is not only convenient for indoor browsing, but also suitable for outdoor reading. When they presented the reader to the top executive of the Shanghai Science and Technology Commission, they praised it as "the most comfortable electronic viewer ever seen."
The industry commented that the newsletter is a promising form of communication in today’s new media challenges traditional media. Its publication will greatly change people's reading habits. Once the way people transmit information through e-newspapers is accepted by people, the economic and social benefits will be incalculable. In view of the experimental and creative nature of e-newspapers, at present, the Liberation Daily newspaper group has positioned the first e-newspaper as “concept firstâ€, first making concepts, guiding and influencing readers’ reading methods, and then exploring electronic newspapers in practice. The value of the way to achieve, to explore its various forms of service for the news media.
Based on a keen sense, the Liberation Daily Newspaper Group recognized the possibility of a future. In January 2006, it signed a cooperation agreement with iRex, a Dutch company. The main goal of the cooperation between the two parties was to build the first electronic mobile reading in China. The newspaper started to make full use of and develop the advantages of original electronic paper technology and become a leading supplier of e-reading solutions. In addition, the Liberation Daily Newspaper Group also proposed the idea of ​​experiencing reading, first locked 200 to 300 large customers. “We shared this idea with the Netherlands, and iRex then communicated this idea to some newspaper groups in Europe, America and Japan. Now, in Europe, the “Belgian Times†has launched an electronic newspaper reading experience. , European market and the United States market, there are some newspaper companies are brewing to carry out experimental reading." Yin Minghua told reporters this way.
The emergence of electronic newspapers is undoubtedly a technological advancement. Compared with mobile newspapers and handheld computers, it shows traditional newspapers more vividly in front of readers. It is a small step in technology that opens up the digitalization of paper media. The new chapter also made the paper media explore the way out of the trough.
Build an information highway to bring a new reading experience
The publication of the e-newspaper of the “Liberation Daily†is a beginning of electronic newspapers throughout the country and even the world. Yin Minghua said, “Our goal is to use this electronic newspaper as a precedent to build an information superhighway to the rest of the world. By then, newspaper groups throughout the country are like vehicles on the information superhighway, through resource integration. This kind of information highway not only saves the nation’s news and information resources, but also effectively achieves cooperation among various newspaper industry groups in the country, which is conducive to enhancing the competitiveness of our country’s journalism industry worldwide.†Compared to traditional newspapers, electronics The newspaper brings people a new reading experience.
Strong timeliness Traditional newspapers generally have restrictions on the publication cycle. For some breaking news, newspapers often become “old news†when they are sent to readers, and the timeliness of news is greatly reduced. With electronic newspapers, this problem can be easily solved. Electronic newspapers eliminate the printing and distribution links of traditional newspapers so that the latest news can be displayed to readers in a timely manner. Readers can use the remote download function of electronic newspapers at any time and place to get the latest newspapers. We can also use this function to break the publishing cycle of traditional newspapers, strengthen the power of news gathering and editing, change daily newspapers into "Times", and publish more than one day. In this way, newspapers can also display the latest news to readers like radio and television, thereby improving user satisfaction.
The relationship between the new interactive traditional newspaper and the reader is one-way, and it is only the distribution relationship from the newspaper to the reader, and there is no feedback relationship between the reader and the newspaper. The interactive nature of electronic newspapers can solve this problem. While reading the contents of the e-newspapers, readers can read relevant news information in the past, and can also provide readers with relevant content based on the reader's search content. For some advertising information, interested readers can click to enter the details of the product. Readers can even evaluate and discuss news content through electronic newspapers. In this way, newspapers can also generate interaction and resonance with readers.
The establishment of a fine-reading database The establishment of a traditional newspaper reader database requires a great deal of effort. Databases established through distribution and reader activities often have only some basic user information, and the maintenance and updating of the database is a long-term and arduous task.
E-newspapers have the typical characteristics of new media, and can automatically establish reader databases through technical means. In addition to the content of the traditional database, it can also record user's reading information, such as: what pages readers read, what articles have been read in the layout, and how much time the reader has spent on reading specific articles. Using this useful information, the database can automatically analyze readers' reading habits and master their real needs, providing them with better service information. In addition, e-newspapers can also make statistics on the published articles, and can obtain the reading rate and stay time of specific articles. In this way, it is possible to make use of computers to conduct automatic appraisal work.
Saving resources The traditional newspaper process is composed of many links such as subscription, editing, printing, and delivery. It requires a lot of labor costs in the middle. In addition, printed newspapers also require a lot of paper, ink and machine wear. Paper prices in the international market are still rising. The cost of publishing and publishing by the Liberation Daily Newspaper Group for one year reached about 700 million yuan. The use of e-newspapers, minus the printing and distribution links, has accelerated the publication of newspapers while also saving huge expenses and saving a lot of resources.
Looks beautiful behind
When talking about the development concept of the Liberation Daily e-newsletter, Yin Minghua sketched out several framework principles for us: to become a distribution channel for all kinds of newspapers. The capacity of electronic newspapers is very large. Through various means of transmission, readers can download them. And save thousands of newspapers. In other words, electronic newspapers can be used as a platform on which to carry various newspapers. Newspaper groups can add their own newspapers to this distribution system. This ensures that newspapers arrive quickly and accurately, while also saving the cost of publishing newspapers. At the same time, readers' true feedback will also guide the collection and compilation of the newspapers.
Realize the change from person to person, classify and manage to report The current electronic newspaper carries is the extension of the paper newspaper, namely the paper newspaper is displayed intact in the electronic newspaper. After this model matures, it is easy to obtain a real user's dynamic database, according to the preferences of readers, the distribution of various types of electronic newspapers, and these electronic newspapers do not even have their corresponding paper publishing forms, and become true meaning. Electronic newspaper.
The multimedia fusion electronic newspaper reader itself is a mobile smart device, which has the functions of network connection, data processing, sending and receiving sound, information storage and page display. After installing the responsive software, it may be a mobile phone, a radio, a mobile computer, so it has the potential for multiple media convergence. Through electronic newspapers, newspapers, radio, Internet, and mobile phones can all be disseminated to readers on a single platform. Various media can consolidate advantages and complement each other.
Before Yin Minghua painted the “looking beautiful†picture for us, we took advantage of the bright future of e-newspapers and hoped that it would open up the ice-breaking journey of the paper media and take the fast lane of digital media. But when we come closer to this picture, will it still be style? In the cheers, is there any concern about its survival and development? The author believes that the advent of e-newspaper is undoubtedly a kind of progress in the digital media's pursuit of digital survival, but its application and popularity still need a long process.
- The reading habits that people have developed over the years will not change over time. Although electronic newspapers have various advantages and characteristics relative to traditional newspapers, in fact, at the beginning of operation, there are still many imperfections in the technology. It is inconvenient for people's reading. When users receive information, they must also learn a new reading technique and method. This requires an adaptive process for readers who are accustomed to traditional reading methods.
- The technical problem still needs to be further overcome. At present, the electronic newspaper has already had many functions, but it still has some deficiencies waiting for improvement. For example, can there be a curled or folded screen in the future, and the size and weight can be consistent with the current paper? It currently only has 16 levels of black and white display. Will it be possible to display colorful dynamic screens in the future? There is still a noticeable delay in the time displayed in the newspaper now. Can we speed up the display in the future?·······
Although Liberation Daily has joined Shanghai Telecom in successfully downloading the newspapers in Tianyitong's wireless network, due to the limited coverage of wireless networks, some commercial buildings in Shanghai, KFC, and Starbucks can freely download newspapers. Where it cannot be covered, downloads will also be limited.
- The development mode of the paper media digitization road remains to be explored. The digitization of paper media is to open up new ways for the development of paper media. If e-newspapers only remain in a technological advancement and cannot seek a way out for the development of paper media, then it will lose. The essential meaning of existence. The digitalization of paper media must not be the electronic version of the traditional paper media. It must find a content model and business model that are in line with its own characteristics. Otherwise, it is very likely that there will be “Waterloo†on the digital road. As for the prospect of electronic newspapers, we only wait and see.