| Product: |
The Times |
| Date: |
04.05.08 (84 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Access to past articles. Tomorrow's headlines. It's also Free!
Disadvantages: A little easy to get lost, fewer pictures.
I'm a big fan of The Times - well, I have to say this as this is what we had been brainwashed with during my student days, it was either this or The Independent as these two were considered The 'Serious' newspapers.
Back then, we had a fresh copy of this everyday waiting for us in the library so it was quite accessible. It was also an excuse to put off that 'essay' for a little longer.
I have only switched to trying to read off the online version the last couple of years with very poor results. I have the website as my homepage to encourage myself to read more and even just to have a glance at what the headlines are when I think I'm too busy (another excuse) - but shamefully I haven't really been past that homepage that much these days unless something really reaches out to catch my eye.
Personally I find it a bit more of an effort to have to flick through and check for the most up-to-date news. It isn't a case of flicking over to the next page anymore when you had just the whole day's worth of news in your hands. With the website you could have several days worth of articles, if not, even more. The website has its own organised sections, UK News, Global, Education, Health & Lifestyle, Business, Arts & Entertainment and the list goes on.
When you're only after today's news it's very pretty easy to get distracted (and lost) by so many headlines on the screen and they are not all necessarily today's headlines. Once you have clicked on a particular interesting article that happens to be an old one, you would have to rummage through the website trying to follow it up, though they do provide a search box to make it easier to find articles.
I suppose what makes the online version seem more of an effort is that I am no longer reading on the comfy college sofa (with such high tuition fees these days it would be unspeakable for them to provide us with anything less than comfy sofas!). With the actual paper all of the day's news is in your hands and there is a sense of complacency to know that you will soon finish. Online, it feels as if you're reading forever.
The layout on screen will inevitably be more condensed, after all, would they ever be considering 40" PC screens? Because of this restriction, there will also be fewer pictures alongside the article - whether this is an issue for you is down to personal preference but it certainly matters to me.
They've had a new design during the past year with also new motif colours. It used be prim black to give a sense of 'serious', traditional, but nevertheless, independent journalism - nowadays the front page is full of pastel greens and blues, and it just reminds me of some health magazine - it just doesn't quite feel right for this kind of newspaper but it will do. There are a lot of silly little things that I could mention about the online version and I'm sure many will agree, although much of it is pretty tolerable.
To be fair all the news is still there and even the next day's headlines appear before the hardcopies hit the shops. Another thing is, if you miss anything you can still backtrack from a few days before, and if you're really keen they also have a library of archive articles going back years (I think this is a charged service though).
And hey, all this is provided FREE (with the exception of the archives). A hardcopy would be a daily 70p unless of course you're still a student who probably (like me back then) doesn't really appreciate the discounted 25p concession. And then there is still the free brainwashing copy that lies fresh on the library coffee table waiting for you in the mornings.
What I would turn into without it...
© Leighsady 2008
Summary: Still funtions well online, give access to past, present and future articles.
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