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Sunday Newspapers, Now With CDs

Posted by michael on from the 1045-free-hours dept.

VirtualUK writes "The BBC news site has a story today about The Times news paper now distributing a CD along with the tree mass that comes with its Sunday edition. They cite that one of the main reasons is that Internet connection speeds have still yet to catch up on the whole in order to benefit from the rich multimedia content of the CD."

8 of 229 comments (clear)

  1. Pure advertising by Mwongozi · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Everything on the CD is an advert for something else. You can't even get to the main menu without watching a video of a car advert.

  2. Already Done by someguy456 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've seen something like this done in a neighboring city, Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico (I live in El Paso, TX). The subscription rate is really low; the paper is almost completely distributed in stores and newstands. Every once in a while, the paper has a special edition contating a cd. I think it's only music for now, but it may change. The special edition costs around US$0.50 more, which is about the normal cost of the paper (Sunday doesn't cost any more). I have never heard anyone else actually mention it, so I don't think it is fairing well.

    --
    Robert Bindler
    A Computer Science student's views on technology.
  3. What the really mean is.. by SolubleFrank · · Score: 5, Interesting

    benefit from the rich multimedia content

    "suffer from the bland multimedia advertising"

    --
    Feed me a stray cat.
  4. Good luck by Safety+Cap · · Score: 4, Interesting
    This will last a few months, then they'll figure out that the required tech support ("No, ma'am, you need Quicktime!") and the cost of burning and stuffing will not result in additional sales.

    The Marketing Drone that thought of this baby will be canned and sent back to Publix or wherever he came from.

    --
    Yeah, right.
  5. No more CD's please! by Kegetys · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I prefer to have things available online these days rather than having them on a CD. I have hundreds and hundreds of CD's stacked up everywhere, and its becoming slower to find something small from those cd's than find and download it from the net. Especially the CD's that came with a magazine get useless quite fast as the things there get old, and the process of finding the cd and listening to the loud cd drive reading it is far less comfortable than just finding and using the same content from the internet.

    I find it more interesting to have access to magazine articles from the net after subscribing. That way the content is always available from almost anywhere in addition to the paper magazine.

  6. Audio CD? by NanoGator · · Score: 3, Interesting

    A few months ago I read about how a San Fran newspaper was providing an audio CD so you can listen in the car. I like that idea.

    Taking that idea a step further, I wish Avant-Go would do something like that. I'd like to synch my PocketPC in the morning, then plug it into my car's audio so I can listen to fresh news on the way in.

    --
    "Derp de derp."
  7. Why not just, um, watch TV? by Ewann · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Don't most people just flip on the TV (or 'telly' in the UK I guess) when they are seeking "rich multimedia content" that neither broadband nor a newspaper can deliver?

    Oh well.

  8. CD-RW newspapers by cowbutt · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I wonder if it would be economic to "print" the weekly (possibly even daily) newspaper onto cheap re-usable media such as CD-RW? The readers could keep or return previous editions for re-use (for a small refund) at their option.

    This idea inspired by the "Universe Today" personalised newspaper in Babylon 5. Alternatively, the linked article suggests printing on a re-usable (as opposed to re-cyclable) paper substitute, such as Tyvek.

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