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Saturday, 09/May/2009
The Ileach and The Internet
With the latest edition of Islay's newspaper The Ileach having been published today I thought it might be fitting to write about this topic this evening: When I mentioned the new ileach newspaper blog (publishing selected articles from the print edition) in the recent Islay Blogging Roundup one commenter raised an interesting question:
I am just wondering whats the point of the Ileach having a blog... Thats just taking everything away from the paper itself!!! Whats the point on paying 85pence or somthing like that when you can read it for free on the internet!!!
Now I don't have a definite answer to that question, but it's something worth discussing. Not only keeping in mind the blog, more thinking about the internet and its influence in general. It's a challenge The Ileach won't be able to avoid and without having discussed it with the Ileach editors I've got the impression it's a challenge they've taken on.
With the event of the internet publishing has changed dramatically. Many more people have the opportunity to publish on the internet, in general and about Islay. There is an increasing number of Islay related blogs publishing a large variety of Islay related news. Birdwatching, ferry news, whisky news, you name it. The number of Islay videos on YouTube and other video sharing services increases almost daily. In other words, there is already tons of free stuff out there. Not to forget that a lot of the information is very quick, sometimes immediate.
Broadband continues to spread (slowly even on Islay) and in particular younger generations, i.e. future readers of The Ileach, have come to expect to find information online and quick. Something a printed paper published every two weeks can't really deliver.
That's the challenge The Ileach faces, losing readers to the internet regardless whether The Ileach publishes content on the internet or not.
Ron has been republishing articles from The Ileach on his Islay Weblog for quite a while now, so the idea as such isn't exactly new. Keeping that in mind some might question why The Ileach didn't make the step themselves earlier. After all The Ileach is a ‘brand’ well known on Islay as well as further afield with many visitors. Recent developments give me the impression that The Ileach team is experimenting, finding out what works and what doesn't. Opening the ileach newspaper video channel on Vimeo, creating the Ileach photo gallery on Flickr as well as creating the blog. Activities complementing the print edition.
Where will the journey lead? Will there always be a print edition of The Ileach? Or will it disappear and be replaced by something else, quite possibly online? Or a combination of both with a different print edition than what we have today? Advertising funded or subscription funded?
I don't think anyone really knows, but it will be an interesting journey to follow. What do you think where it will lead to?
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