(KR Information Design Lab The Tablet Newspaper: A vision for the Future © Copyright 1994 Knight-Ridder, Inc) [Printing noise]
[Off voice, female] For more than 500 years, ink printed on paper has been the best medium
for delivering written information.
But as the world becomes increasingly digital, all that is changing.
Here, at the Knight-Ridder information design lab in Boulder, Colorado,
a team of journalists, designers, technologists and researchers
is putting together the tools that will take today's newspaper into the electronic age.
[Roger Fidler] We will have the interactive graphic now.
So, when you click on the graphical animate on the front page, or you click on the story (?)
[off voice] Roger Fidler established the lab for Knight-Ridder in the Fall of 1992.
Today, he serves as its director.
[Fidler] All human communication systems are undergoing a transformation --
from one form to another.
And that's all being brought about by emergent technologies and by cultural changes.
Now, several years ago, I coined the word "mediamorphosis" to describe this transformation.
Newspapers are certainly going through that now,
but all forms of media that we know today will be transformed over the next 10, 15 years.
[off voice, male] The transforming inventions are of course the computer and digital telecommunications,
We're finding that our capacity to be able to process and deliver information
through information superhighways and computer systems,
are increasing in efficiency and they're resulting in reduced costs for publishing.
I do believe that for the first time, we're going to begin seeing an alternative to ink on paper.
It may be difficult to conceptualize, the idea of digital paper,
but in fact, we believe that that's what's going to happen.
[Fidler] Ideal is (? 1:54) is a media think-tank:
we bring people to the lab to give us more insights into the developments of technologies
and particularly, digital technologies and digital communication.
Our role is to investigate the opportunities that may be there for newspaper companies
over the next few years
and to also try to develop a long-range vision of where the newspaper industry is headed
over the next 5, 10, 20 years.
[Off voice, female] An important part of this evolution is the emergence of the electronic tablet.
This device is under development at consumer electronic companies around the world.
Tablets will be a whole new class of computers.
They'll weigh under two pounds.
They'll be totally portable.
They'll have a clarity of screen display comparable to ink on paper.
They'll be able to blend text, video, audio and graphics together.
And they'll be part of our daily lives around the turn of this century.
We may still use computers to create information,
but we'll use the tablet to interact with information: reading, watching, listening.
[Fidler] Our goal here, at the Information Design Lab,
is to develop the appropriate interfaces and appropriate technologies,
so that when we actually do produce electronic editions of newspapers for these tablets,
that we could hand it to you and you would immediately know how to use the .....
because it looks familiar to you.
In fact, what we are doing is building a bridge of familiarity.
When we talk about human communication systems, what we discover throughout history
is that they have evolved and new forms tend to take on many of the characteristics of older forms
for some period of time.
Over time, of course, they do evolve and take on their own characteristics.
I believe the same thing will happen in our transition
from ink on paper to digital forms of newspapers and magazines and books.
But in the beginning, they will retain many of the familiar characteristics of print products today.
And I think that's absolutely essential.
We don't want to have to issue people manuals to read their newspaper.
You already know how to read a newspaper, you know how to turn pages, pull out a section,
find things that are interesting to you.
We can enhance that with electronic technology and make it much more useful
and add value to it.
But we believe we have to build a bridge of familiarity first,
to get us from the ink on paper product into the digital world. (4:28)
[off voice, female] Let's take a closer look at the Information Design Lab's vision
of the electronic newspaper of the future.
On first glance, it looks just like a printed newspaper.
In fact, you can browse stories and turn pages just as you would on paper.
But if a story interests you, you can read it more deeply.
Suppose this story about Bosnia catches your attention.
Just touch the text, and the full story appears.
What you read is no longer limited to the physical constraints
of the printing press and production process.
A story is edited for content and completeness, not for news ..... (? 5:10)
And the tablet newspaper extends communication beyond the written word.
Touch the map, and it comes alive,
using the tools of sound and animation to tell the story.
[Off voice, male] To understand the land divisions proposed today,
one must look at how the diverse cultures of the Balkans, recently, were part of Yugoslavia,
which formerly held a prominent position in Central Europe.
[Off voice, female] Access to information concerns everyone.
This vision of an electronic newspaper lets its readers move beyond physical barriers.
If you can't read small type, enlarge it until the type size feels comfortable for you.
Tablet newspapers can also combine video and audio clips with written stories.
For example, in this sports story, sound bites and instant replays mean
you don't have to worry about missing that exciting play.
[off voice, male] The whole play is gone.
It's close (?) in the air (6:10)
it might be .... the score
... a great arm
Here comes the .... here comes the.... (6:20)
.... he never got to the .....
[Woman] Hey, look at this!
[Male voice 6:25]... swing the bat here, the double play is gone(?)
[off voice other male (6:28)] It goes in the air, it might ... the score .... that underneath (6:32)
[Off voice, female] And unlike television, you can watch it as many time as you want,
or slow the video down to look at just one frame.
[off voice, some male (6:40)] ... strikes the baseball, and ... is gone down and that is how... (6:45)
[Off voice, female] The tablet paper even flags items of special interest to you.
We've included a personal profile page where you can tell the newspaper
to find ads or stories that march your interests.
You can see an index of the entire newspaper with items that match your special interests highlighted,
turn to a set of abstracts that match your personal profile,
and jump from the index or the abstract to the full story.
But moving to a new form doesn't mean you should give up anything,
including the ability to save and share pieces of the newspaper.
Just like the printed form, with the tablet newspaper, you can clip and save articles,
or send them electronically to a friend.
You can do all this without using a manual,
because everyone already understands how a newspaper works.
One of the things that helps readers navigate through the newspaper is its familiar look and feel.
We know how to find everything in our newspaper, it's the one we read everyday.
Retaining that look and feel is very important, because people don't buy generic news.
They buy a specific newspaper with a branded identity.
[Fidler] For most people, a newspaper is like a friend.
It's somebody you know, you have come to trust.
Over the last 15 years, there have been many attempts to develop electronic newspapers
and many of the technologists who have been pursuing these objectives
assume that information is simply a commodity
and people really don't care where that information comes from
as long as it matches their set of personal interests.
I disagree with that view.
People recognize the newspapers they subscribe to.
They don't even have to see the name on the name plate.
If it is on a news stand, they immediately recognize the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal
or Philadelphia Inquirer.
And it's also true for the local newspapers in small towns.
And there is a loyalty attached to those - those names.
When you buy that newspaper and you go to the newspaper, you know how it's organized.
It feels comfortable to you.
[Off voice, female] Advertising is an important of the Knight Ridder model.
It helps underwrite the cost of the newspaper,
making the news accessible to everyone -- plus, people like advertising.
It's a part of the local information package and at times, it can be as important as the news itself.
Most people want to know what's on sale this week at the department store,
and they want to clip the Sunday coupons.
The tablet newspaper takes advertising to new dimensions,
making the ad more useful to readers who are interested in it,
without annoying readers who aren't at all interested in it.
Just as you can go deeper into a story, you can go deeper into an ad.
Plus, the tablet has two-way communication's capability.
So you can buy and sell electronically,
make reservations,
or request more information.
[Ridler] Well, you have to think of ads somewhat differently in electronic publishing.
In a sense, the are very much like a shopping center.
In the print model, we find that, you know, you have a surface
and it's a two-dimensional world, so what you see is what you get.
The advertiser presents their image or their sale
but requires you then, after you've seen the ad, to go do something later with it.
[Fidler, off] In the electronic world, we're really dealing with a tri-dimensional world.
The advertising on the surface pages that you browse, just like a newspaper today,
are in a sort of sense, the store front window.
If I'm interested in that ad and want to know more,
it's simply a matter of touching that ad,
and at that point, I go through an electronic doorway into the advertiser's space.
And in that space might be a video clip for 15 or 20 seconds, sort of a TV commercial,
but I'm in control.
[Off voice, female] The tablet makes information 100% accessible.
It goes where you go.
If you don't want to read the paper, the tablet can read the stories to you.
[woman driver] Read story.
[Speech-to-text] Geneva. Adopting the language and locale (? 11:07) of a bygone diplomatic era...
[Off voice, female] And you can get your news anywhere.
We envision kiosks that would download your publications onto electronic cards
that go inside the tablet.
So if you're doing business in Miami but your home town is Denver,
you can still get your local paper delivered every morning.
[Fidler] This is one of the most exciting places to be in the newspaper industry today.
This is where, I think, we're going to play a role in changing - changing history.
And the people that we have here, in our laboratory are creative, energetic,
and very concerned about the newspaper industry itself
and how to build on the strength of the industry rather simply restarting all over again.
There are many people who believe that newspapers are dinosaurs
and that they are going to become the road kill on the information super-highway in a not too distant future.
We believe exactly the opposite.
We believe that newspapers, in fact, can evolve into a new form of media
that blends the old familiar aspects of a newspaper with the new technologies that are emerging,
so that you have the ability to read and browse and scan, as we do today,
but at the same time, being able to interact with the newspaper,
to interact with advertisers through your newspaper
in ways that are not possible in print media today.
(Presented by Knight-Ridder, Inc.)
(Producer Brian Doubleday)
(Script Teresa A. Martin)
(Camera Brad Wallace)
(Editor Izzie Jimenez)
(Off-line Editor Lily Gabriel)
(Associate Producers Deborah Fellner Bill Skeet)
(Thanks to KRT News In Motion - National Hunior College Athletic Association)
(Clarion Harvest House, Boulder, Colorado)
(Executive Producer Teresa A. Martin)