Leaving no revenue stream untapped, some Gannett papers have changed online story formatting options so advertisements now appear on printouts, and in full color.Following a tip today from a Gannett Blog reader, I've found the change in place at The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky.; The News-Press in Fort Myers, Fla.; the Des Moines Register in Iowa, and the Reno Gazette-Journal in Nevada.
With more traditional printout options, only the article's text is sent to a printer -- and in black-and-white ink. In my spot check this morning, I found that option still in place on at least one Lansing State Journal story in Michigan.
When did this change take place? Has your website made the switch? Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.
Why is this a problem?
ReplyDeleteI didn't say it was.
ReplyDeleteShould've been that way right from the beginning. And I'm saying that as an online editor.
ReplyDeleteAs long as it doesn't automatically call up the printer dialog box, I am less opposed to it as I would otherwise be. On the other hand, the main reasons for clicking "Printer View" are to kill the pagination and to let the text run all the way across the page as opposed to being constrained in the column. The two-column pages the new print view creates defeat the second purpose.
ReplyDeleteI've just accessed printer-friendly versions of articles on all four of the sites that you cite above, and all four do not have advertisements. They, do, however, have a color graphic at the top of the article with the newspaper's name. Was this what you were referring to? I don't see how that would generate any revenue, per se. Or were there ads when you wrote this that have since disappeared?
ReplyDeleteI've taken a screenshot here.
Frankly, this is a solid idea. No problems here.
ReplyDeleteI'm still finding ads on the Courier-Journal site. 5th Third Bank, USA Today and Moms Like Us, all on one story. May not be a problem, but it's damn sure an annoyance if you're trying to get a clean print copy of nothing but the headline and text.
ReplyDeleteOh, it's because I was using the Chrome browser. I see them in IE. Ick!
ReplyDelete