I just noticed, via the Editors’ Weblog, that the Dallas Morning News is going to insert CD-ROMs into the paper in April.
I don’t get it: Two old media equal a new medium? When was the last time you stuck a CD-ROM into your computer? Now this has allegedly been working in Europe, though I thought that was often for distribution of music CDs and Murdoch complains that it doesn’t permanently raise circulation:
It’s like magazines giving away sneakerphones to get you to subscribe…. or newspapers keeping TV listings to keep you subscribing. It’s not about the core product: news, local news. And there is a much better, more dynamic, less expensive, more personal way to delivery digital content: It’s called the internet.
The last great technological innovation from the Dallas Morning News, let’s remember, was the Cuecat.
