As I was reading some posts about the differences between the newspaper and the internet version of the Mercury News I realized everyone did the same thing. They compared an article that could be found in both mediums, but no one was finding any conclusive differences. Some people said the articles online were more informative while others believed the newspaper had more information. It just depended on the article they chose to compare. So I decided I would compare the layout and access to the information. As a consumer of news, I think it is important to be able to access the information you want quickly and easily. The front page of the newspaper has the beginning of various articles they feel are particularly interesting, as well as a small index in the bottom corner to show which pages different sections begin on. The home page of the website serves a similar purpose; there is a lot of information that generally leads you to other sections and topics. The layout of both the front page of the newspaper and the home page of the website offer major sources of interest and are often cluttered, but once you navigate past the front page, the website becomes so much quicker and offers a lot more. If you go out to the site map navigation becomes incredibly simple. It is cleanly laid out, easy to read, and lets you get to a section of interest quickly. The broad topics let you find what you want fast, then helps direct you to countless subcategories beneath it. It doesn't matter what your looking for, it helps you narrow your search quickly and easily. Trying to find something in the newspaper can be tricky and incredibly awkward; the big cumbersome papers never seem to fold the way you want. I realize that most of the information can be accessed through the homepage, but the site map offered a cleaner layout to follow. If you do decide to navigate through the home page, it provides a lot of extras the newspaper couldn't possibly offer like, breaking news, videos, blogs, discussion boards and podcasts. There is access to the yellow pages, traffic reports, and a Bay Area calendar. The calendar is great; I wait for Thursday's newspaper because it has the "eye" in it. This is a section that reports upcoming events for that weekend and the week to follow. It is practically the whole reason I subscribe! With the website I can actually search the calendar for specific types of events and dates. How easy is that? As far as access to information, you can't beat the website. It provides quick access and a lot more small interest articles, as well as tons of extras. You can look back on archived information and search by topic. Newspapers are big, awkward and don't offer any extras. In this up-to-the-second world we live in, the paper just can't compare.
As a side note, and small pet peeve, I thought I would mention another thing about newspapers that I find very annoying. The fact that they'll print an article on two different pages, and we're not talking about page one and two! I don't want to start reading something on the front page and continue reading on page 4C (which is not even in the same section); I want to read the end of the article where I began the article. With the clumsiness of the newspaper, I hate having to peel it apart every time I start a new article. I realize everything can't go on the front page, but lets try to keep it in the same section!
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