Well it finally arrived. The Associated Press iPhone app. The difference with this app is that is has push functionality. “Push functionality, wtf is that Ern?” you ask. Push functionality means that the app does not have to be open for it to update you of something happening. In the case of The Associated Press app if a breaking story hits their newswires the app wakes up your iPhone and tells you that headline. It is awesome and will change the way all apps will work in the future.

You can also share any story from The Associated Press app by selecting the share icon at the bottom of every story. The cool thing if you look at the picture above (click to enlarge) is the locations you can share to. You can text it to a friend, you can email it, you can share it through your Twitter stream and you can send it to your Facebook wall.

Awesome stuff hey? Well I have some concerns. If we all download this app onto our iPhone and iPod Touches and use this as our way to get news, what will happen to our local newspapers? Will we stop reading them? Will we visit their websites and interact with them?

Why the concern? I forgot to mention in this app you can set it to glean news relevant to your zip code … yep your local news via this app. Where will this leave an already under pressure industry? I worry that this app will make us lazy in hunting for news relevant to ourselves. Why look for it when it can come to you? Why fire up my browser and visit my local papers website?

I love local news and will still interact with and buy my local newspaper. Will you?

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You can share your view by either commenting in the traditional manner, or you can leave a video comment.

To date my local newspaper, The Didcot Herald has not even graced me with an answer. 

Today I found the email addresses of all the staff and sent them all this email:

Hello I thought I may try emailing all of you. To date I have not had an answer to my previous emails to the editor of the Didcot Herald.

Would it be possible for the Didcot Herald to have a Twitter account so that it can push out news updates to followers on the Twitter website?

A lot of local US papers use Twitter and push out little news updates as they come in. You can also use it to reference your website and paper, it could increase the traffic to your website.

The Twitter website is at http://twitter.com and no I don’t work for them, I just think it is a great tool and would like to see my local paper go cutting edge

Please can someone from there at least have the manners to reply to an email asking questions?

Best Regards

Ernie 

Well lets hope this time at least one of them answer. One of the main skills of journalism is communication, very poor Didcot Herald, very poor.

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We are all aware of the newspapers and printing world are haemorrhaging jobs on a daily basis. Well how is this for a cool idea. The Printed Blog are now using these newspaper skills to take user generated content and provide a printed newspaper. 

Just imagine your blog, your picture, your music or anything you have created could make it onto The Printed Blog.

I think it is a wonderful idea and I will support this in anyway that I can. I hope that it will take off all over the world. 

Don’t take it from me look at what The Printed Blog say in their own words below. 

The Printed Blog

The Printed Blog 

Is changing the way people read and consume news and other information. We hope to play a vital part in reversing the fortunes of the newspaper industry with this new media project… but we need your help. This website, in conjunction with major social networks, is your hub for providing us blogs, articles, photographs, music, events, and tons of other content, for real publication and distribution in the twice daily paper.

About The Printed Blog

The Printed Blog is an independent media outlet that aggregates user-generated content from the Internet and publishes it twice daily via print. The result is a revolutionary newspaper that reads and functions like a web feed – yet can still be enjoyed on the train or spread across the breakfast table, for an uninterrupted, pleasurably tactile experience.

The selection of content in The Printed Blog is based solely on the votes of readers and their geographic location. In such a way, The Printed Blog revolts against the top-down, ‘one size fits all’ model of newsprint, as we know it. Instead of one paper serving hundreds of thousands of people, as is often the case, The Printed Blog publishes hundreds or even thousands of highly-localized editions based on what a community declares is important to them. The papers are distributed to neighborhood pickup points in A.M. and P.M. editions, and will incorporate rapid turnaround reader comments.

We at The Printed Blog believe that there will always be a readership for off-screen, printed media- but in order for that media to survive, it must leverage the best information technology has to offer. Through the integration of online social networks and web-based syndication technologies, The Printed Blog is tapping into the wellspring of brilliant bloggers that has revolutionized collective media. As our society moves towards individualized information, The Printed Blog has the courage to respect our readers. We recognize the value of what individuals have to say, we publish the information they create, and provide them with the information they demand.

Why rely on a handful of outmoded sources, when you know there is great content out there? We know you are writing, learning, DIGGing, and sharing – this isn’t about the newspaper, this is about you.

The Printed Blog

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