SL's newspapers - ugh

I know of three newspapers dedicated to Second Life so far. All of them, of course, come out in PDF. It's all wonderful and at times I'm grateful for the information I learn from them, but.... why must ALL of them contain the same content that real-life magazines and newspapers contain? Do they REALLY need ads? It seems one doesn't need ANY money to make a virtual newspaper. So why must we be bombarded with annoying, in-your-face ads in our virtual life as well?? It imparts a cold, superficial tinge and taste to this whole "friendly" virtual newspaper thing. I don't know about others, but I'm here to get away from the grim real world, and I absolutely hate ads. Can't we have at least one magazine that is ad-free??

I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a financial return on the time invested, and ads is the only realistic way they can go. However, the last time I read one of those papers, the HUGE number of ads was so ridiculous that it put me off ever reading it again - the balance between ads and content was way off. This was a while ago, so I don't know if that is still the case or not.

The ads don't bother me nearly as much as the PDF format and the layout. I simply don't read anything in PDF unless I know it contains a specific article. The layout of the two I know of (the MM and the Avastar) is also terrible for reading online, partly, I admit, because of all of the ads interrupting all the content.

As you say they mimic the layout of RL newspapers and magazines, and they do it in the worst way. RL publications know this of course and when they publish content on the internet, it looks nothing like their print version. I also avoid reading RL publications where the ads get in the way of the actual articles.

It is up to the publishers, of course, but I certainly don't read them, I barely know anyone who does, I would if they were easier to read (and had a damn RSS feed) and I've had a lot of conversations in the past where other people have said the same. So there you are.

I don't read the SL publications as a rule, but they do take time to put together, and if the publisher wishes to sell ad space that's their choice. If the ads are for SL products or services, I think it's fine, ads for RL stuff would annoy me.

As someone who's been involved in the publishing business, I have to say...

No, you can't. Unless you're willing to pay a fairly hefty subscription fee.

Newspapers and magazines take a tremendous amount of time and effort to put together and distribute. Virtual publications don't have paper and ink costs, but they still have labor costs.

Would you have the hardworking people who make them donate their time for free? Publishing is a business, not a charity. Writers and editors expect to be paid for their time and talent, just the same as you'd pay a clothing designer.

More broadly: Why are we bombarded with ads everywhere? I'm reminded of a line in a Futurama episode, when Fry is protesting ads being inserted into his dreams. "In the twentieth century, we didn't have these intrusive ads everywhere. Sure, we had ads on TV...and in movies...magazines, newspapers, billboards, skywriting, CD packages, on the internet and in the mail...but not in our dreams!"

Advertising sells products. Newspapers carry ads because the fees paid by the advertisers pay for (or help defray) the costs of publishing the newspaper.

The existence and influence of advertising in the media is something one could debate for a while (the Propaganda Model comes to mind) but, I have to say, RL publishers generally take care to make sure that the advertising doesn't actually make their publications unreadable. Unless they know that they are guaranteed an audience, or that the advertising is actually what people look at, and few are in that position.

You don't mind doing all the work yourself for free then?

I am sure the current newspaper owners would love to 'hire' you for 0L salary!

Let me know when your ad free newspaper comes out, Nimue. I would love to have a copy and will do my best to let all my friends know that one is available.

Most of the virtual papers also pay a service provider to host them.

There are, however, dozens if not hundreds of blogs and sites which provide reporting and commentary without having half their space filled with adverts, and requiring one to either print them out to read them or struggle awkwardly through PDF pages.

Many of these are supported at least partially by advertising, too.

So what's so bad about PDF format?

If the magazine didn't have any ads, then you'd probably have to pay to get a copy. If was free, then quality of content would be suspect.



Can't agree more. I'm not an Adobe hater. PDF has it's uses. However, it is absolutely one of (if not *the*) worst technology to use to deliver web-only content. I guarantee some these magazines are losing readers because of the insistence to use PDF. Which is too bad, because on the odd occasion that I do actually read one them, the actual content usually isn't too bad.

--Hugsy

Well.

Firstly, it is mostly unsearchable; Google does _try_, but it isn't terribly good at it. The text of a PDF is pretty much locked up. Searches are extremely important in making one's publication and site known (and, of course, increasing the exposure of the adverts that are on them). This is an issue for both consumer and publisher - if I as a reader can't find something in a publication it is less useful to me, and if I cannot find the part of that issue that interests me and that I have downloaded it for I will probably not bother with it at all.

Secondly, the files are vast, and you cannot see any part of them until you have downloaded the whole lot. This is inefficient and annoying.

Thirdly - and this is not a _necessary_ part of using PDFs, but it usually seems to be the case - they don't lend themselves to the use of RSS. If you publish anything at all on the internet and you are at all interested in competing with anyone else, you need to have an RSS feed of the articles. Blogging and news systems provide RSS feeds automatically these days as they can be easily constructed from the text entered at the same time as the article. PDF publications have a harder time with this.

Outside of SL, the publications which use PDF are basically graphic design and obscure art ones, in my experience - ones which put huge importance on the precise appearance. This is a shame, because in most cases one will never come across them without knowing about them, but perhaps they have a reason and don't want to abandon it. I cannot see how any SL publication could justify that as motivation though.

Ads are very necessary, and I don't think they are a burden at all--they allow SL companies to get their name out there, as well as readers to get a glimpse at competitors and products, as well as see how other companies are handling their marketing and advertising.

Plus, the ads help pay for the newspaper itself.

I recommend the Metaverse Messenger (M2)--it's a very well-run company, with some great contributors.

Also check out the Avastar (although, I think they are going purely digital very soon--meaning, no PDF, just web-based news)...*shugs*

For me, it's slow to load. I get annoyed with the "update your software" window. It doesn't always scroll smoothly up and down. I sometimes have to scroll left/right to read the article.

Here's a site with more good info:

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20010610.html

--Hugsy

Quite, and this is what irritates me. I'm sceptical about the Avastar (though I am known to read the Herald, and thus I am clearly not particularly choosy) but I generally find the MM to be a decently-written publication with some interesting pieces.

But when I can launch my RSS reader and flick through a dozen articles of equal quality which _don't_ require me to download a huge PDF, page through all of the ads and articles I don't care about, and perhaps chase an article down between pages ("continued on p10" - I _hate_ that with physical papers and there is absolutely no excuse electronically) I will end up using the information sources that provide the best outcome to my investment of time. No RSS? No readers.

I cannot remember the last time I heard anyone refer to an MM article in casual conversation or on a blog or anywhere at all. I wouldn't be at all bothered if I knew that the content was rubbish, but I know that it isn't.

Thank, Ord. I understand what you mean now.
PDF was intended to be a platfrom independat way of sharing "printed" material. It works well for system manuals and legal documents. Things you will download and look at later. I never gave it much thought as this is how I see them in my day to day job. It is an aging tech, however, that is not best used on the dynamic and fuild system we think of as the web. Speed bumps on the information highway.

I guess I agree with the anti-PDF crowd.

How about a "newspaper" whose in-world part consists simply of a notecard, "Click here for latest issue"...which takes you to a blog or web page in your normal browser, outside of SL?

I'm still back in the dark ages...just recently graduated to using a word processor instead of pen and paper. So I'm obviously not the girl to decide How We Should Do Digital Stuff. But I do want it to be fast and easy to read, and easy to find things buried on Page 56.

You can make a PDF searchable (OCR Text Recognition). It is found under the Document menu.

Oh. Do you mean searchable from the Internet? Like running a search using Google? Ah then yes it isn't searchable from an outside source. Yes, based on what you say, you do mean using an outside source to search.

I see many replies re-affirming that ads are most of the time necessary for publishing, even virtual publishing.

Okay, then...

Then why not change the ads themselves? Do they have to be obtrusive? Can they command attention without it?

Why not have something like this: An ad is a photoshot of the best and most attractive product of that particular business, with a link to their site in-world - instead of ads that scream in your face: You need this! You need that!

Also internally - I use desktop search engines like Spotlight quite a bit, and I can get results from articles that I have read from feeds, or ones that I have saved as whole pages or text. From a PDF, well, no, I'll never find it again.

Ordinal, sorry to snip the rest of your message!

I just wanted to share that MM has done a wonderful thing for me today: It announced that PBS will be airing film versions of Jane Austen's works, and that there will be in world discussions about them.

It's not always rubbish

Oh, it's not rubbish! That's the problem! If it was rubbish, I wouldn't care, because I don't really mind not reading rubbish.

Oh..... I think I got you now

I agree that the Metaverse frequently has great content. But it really is laid out to be printed out ... in fact, it's so beautiful when printed that it never occurred to me to question its delivery mechanism.

But you're right.

I think it would be MUCH more accessible and have wider circulation with a more 21st century publishing concept. But I also think that would be a major reconceptualization of the newspaper. They're redesigning the website now ... maybe some new ideas for distribution will show up then.