Return of the PM as an E-edition?

It is also relatively easy to offer bonus content — more games and comics, specialized sections aggregating anything from obituaries to COVID-19 coverage to local stock prices. McClatchy is pursuing this strategy in all 30 of its markets.

E-editions remain an ordeal to access and read on a smartphone, but tech improvements make navigation on a tablet or desktop relatively easyonce you learn how.

At the same time, a great many local digital sites, while updated frequently, remain cluttered with intrusive ads, and home pages are dizzyingly disorganized. If most traffic comes from social media, why put a lot of expense and effort into an improved homepage? The preference of a number of readers for e-editions is not surprising.

From its early days, a subtle appeal of the e-replica was that you could read the whole thing, or as much as you want, and have a sense of completeness. Sure, it is not the same as a broadsheet in your hands with the first cup of coffee, but actual paper may not be all that important.

Even the top of the line digital sites, like The New York Times, can leave readers with a sense that they have missed something as display stories rotate in and out. The continuing scroll of new material may seem overwhelming.
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E-replica editions, the ugly ducklings of digital news, have suddenly become strategic - Poynter

Here at The State, we often hear from readers who are unhappy with the size of the newspaper or the depth of coverage we’re able to offer as compared to the past.

As advertising revenue has decreased for the newspaper industry across the company, as business models shift and readers move to online spaces, we have struggled to maintain the size of our daily paper. We are not able to publish as much national, world and business coverage as much as we once were.

There’s good news.

Our online eEdition of the newspaper, which looks just like the paper in your hands now, includes dozens of extra news pages we weren’t able to print. Yesterday, while our main news section had eight pages, the eEdition had 28 additional pages.

The printed Sports section had five pages. The eEdition had 41 additional sports pages and six more pages dedicated to stats and standings. That’s dozens of extra stories every day.

Best yet, if you’re a subscriber to The State, you probably already have access to the eEdition. You can read it daily at www.thestate.com/eedition or have it emailed to you each morning. …

Our online eEdition of the newspaper, which looks just like the paper in your hands now, includes dozens of extra sports pages we weren’t able to print.

The SportsXtra is our eEdition bonus section exclusively for subscribers who want the latest on sports. Every day, fans will find highlights and recaps, as well as analysis and commentary that go beyond the game. Yesterday, while our printed sports section had four pages, the Sports Xtra section of the eEdition had 23 additional pages. And there’s an entire section dedicated to sports stats. That’s dozens of extra sports stories every day.

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To retain subscribers, The State sees the eEdition as a key product to increase loyalty - Better News

 

I do get that appeal, but I don’t think it matters as much to readers younger than 40. They’re used to being slammed by information gushing out of a firehose. I hope I’m very wrong.

 

They might be used to it, but that doesn’t mean they like it.

 

I assume they're dumping the wire into those 75 additional sports and news pages, but if the pages still need to be laid out then who is doing that work? I'm guessing they didn't hire a new team of designers.
I'd have loved to have been a fly on the wall when they told whoever is designing the paper, "Yeah, we're still doing the normal print section. But then we're going to do five times as much work for our online readers! It'll be great! What do you mean a raise? I'm not familiar with that term."

 

I wonder if the company did hire extra designers; in the Philippines.