There are three kinds of news reader: one who strictly reads the paper, one who retrieves their news online only, and one who utilizes both to get the biggest picture.
Every morning I wake up, grab my coffee and read the paper. As a last-ditch effort to get the rest of the news, I quickly scan Orlando Sentinel's Web site to fill in any gaps caused by reading the print edition.
Today's front page of the paper addresses Friday's presidential debate and economic crises. The Sentinel Web site, though, is still focused on the local Casey Anthony case.
By combining the Sentinel's two mediums, I get a great balance of local news and politics, but there are those times when I want to read an article that I read in the paper online. This becomes an issue.
In order for newspaper articles to be easily accessible on the internet, companies utilize search engine optimization, SEO, to provide key words in the headline that are relevant to the article's topic. So when I go online to read todays print article dubbed "It's debatable" I find the same article online under the headline "Campaign 2008: Will McCain and Obama face off Friday?" And I can't type in the print headline to retrieve its online counterpart.
The Sentinel does a good job at pointing print readers to the web via bugs, but once readers get there it's a free-for-all on finding specific information linked to the print article.
By combining print and online resources,I become a more of a well-rounded reader, balancing the presidential campaign news from print and local news (ie Casey Anthony) from online, but the home page doesn't link up directly to its print twin.
Perhaps the front page image the Sentinel offers on their left sidebar should offer links to the print editions articles online.
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