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5 Ways Newspapers Botched the Web

Posted by timothy on from the but-they're-getting-better dept.

nicholas.m.carlson writes "Remember Knight-Ridder and AT&T's Viewtron from 1983? With a $900 terminal and $12 a month, you could access news from the Miami Herald and the New York Times, online shopping, banking and food delivery, via a 300-baud modem. After sinking $16 million a year into the project, Knight-Ridder shut it down in 1986. That's just the earliest of the 5 newspaper failures on the Web that Valleywag details in this post, writing: 'each tale ends the same way: A promising start, shuttered amid fear, uncertainty, and doubt.'"

9 of 136 comments (clear)

  1. Ha ha! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Your medium is dying!

    1. Re:Ha ha! by Dan541 · · Score: 1, Funny

      Your medium is dying!

      Good riddance, you either keep up or be left behind.

      At takes about 2 days for some news to hit the papers, I often find myself reading old news.

      --
      An SQL query goes to a bar, walks up to a table and asks, "Mind if I join you?"
    2. Re:Ha ha! by strelitsa · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well, its a rare medium that is well done.

      --
      No mod points, no meta-moderating/Firehose/all the other free work Slashdot wants me to do.
  2. Re:Paper and gasoline-based dinosaurs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    But I can't line the bird cage with internets. Thank goodness for old media!

  3. Re:Paper and gasoline-based dinosaurs by Joebert · · Score: 3, Funny

    Newspapers are still good at local city and neighborhood news and ads for local retailers.

    You must be kidding, I read about things via Google news the day before they're printed in the local paper.
    I actually had a few of my non-web friends thinking I'm psychic for awhile.

    --
    Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
  4. Knight-Ridder by Radi-0-head · · Score: 2, Funny

    Maybe folks just couldn't get used to Kitt's computerized voice...

  5. Re:1 Way Slashdot is Turning Into Digg by ShadowRangerRIT · · Score: 3, Funny

    You only used "Smart userbase" to suck up to the moderators. Admit it.

    --
    $_ = "wftedskaebjgdpjgidbsmnjgcdwatb"; tr/a-z/oh, turtleneck Phrase Jar!/; print
  6. Re:Newpapers have their place by yelvington · · Score: 3, Funny

    I know I could not light my fire with my laptop.

    Apparently you don't have a Sony battery.

  7. 2 Ways the web botched the newspaper by scourfish · · Score: 2, Funny
    1.) It is harder for me to use my laptop when I am on the toilet.

    2.) I do it anyway.