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(KR Information Design Lab
The Tablet Newspaper: A vision for the Future)

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(Copyright 1994 Knight-Ridder, Inc)
[Printing noise]

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[Off voice, female] For more than 500 years, ink printed on paper has been the best medium

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for delivering written information.

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But as the world becomes increasingly digital, all that is changing.

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Here, at the Knight-Ridder information Design Lab in Boulder, Colorado,

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a team of journalists, designers, technologists and researchers

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is putting together the tools that will take today's newspaper into the electronic age.

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[Roger Fidler] We will have the interactive graphic now.

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So, when you click on the graphical animate on the front page, or you click on the story

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[off voice] Roger Fidler established the lab for Knight-Ridder in the Fall of 1992.

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Today, he serves as its director.

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[Fidler] All human communication systems are undergoing a transformation --

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from one form to another.

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And that's all being brought about by emergent technologies and by cultural changes.

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Now, several years ago, I coined the word "mediamorphosis" to describe this transformation.

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Newspapers are certainly going through that now,

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but all forms of media that we know today will be transformed over the next 10, 15 years.

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[off voice, male] The transforming inventions are of course the computer and digital telecommunications,

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We're finding that our capacity to be able to process and deliver information

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through information superhighways and computer systems,

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are increasing in efficiency and they're resulting in reduced costs for publishing.

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I do believe that for the first time, we're going to begin seeing an alternative to ink on paper.

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It may be difficult to conceptualize, the idea of digital paper,

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but in fact, we believe that that's what's going to happen.

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[Fidler] IDL is a media think-tank:

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we bring people to the lab to give us more insights into the developments of technologies

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and particularly, digital technologies and digital communication.

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Our role is to investigate the opportunities that may be there for newspaper companies

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over the next few years

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and to also try to develop a long-range vision of where the newspaper industry is headed

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over the next 5, 10, 20 years.

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[Off voice, female] An important part of this evolution

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is the emergence of the electronic tablet.

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This device is under development at consumer electronics companies around the world.

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Tablets will be a whole new class of computer.

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They'll weigh under two pounds.

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They'll be totally portable.

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They'll have a clarity of screen display comparable to ink on paper.

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They'll be able to blend text, video, audio and graphics together.

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And they'll be part of our daily lives around the turn of this century.

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We may still use computers to create information,

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but we'll use the tablet to interact with information: reading, watching, listening.

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[Fidler] Our goal here, at the Information Design Lab,

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is to develop the appropriate interfaces and appropriate technologies,

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so that when we actually do produce electronic editions of newspapers for these tablets,

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that we could hand it to you and you would immediately know how to use the .... [check]

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because it looks familiar to you.

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In fact, what we are doing is building a bridge of familiarity.

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When we talk about human communication systems, what we discover throughout history

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is that they have evolved and new forms tend to take on

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many of the characteristics of older forms for some period of time.

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Over time, of course, they do evolve and take on their own characteristics.

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I believe the same thing will happen in our transition

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from ink on paper to digital forms of newspapers and magazines and books.

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But in the beginning, they will retain many of the familiar characteristics of print products today.

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And I think that's absolutely essential.

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We don't want to have to issue people manuals to read their newspaper.

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You already know how to read a newspaper, you know how to turn pages, pull out a section,

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find things that are interesting to you.

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We can enhance that with electronic technology and make it much more useful

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and add value to it.

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But we believe we have to build a bridge of familiarity first,

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to get us from the ink on paper product into the digital world.

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[Off voice, female] Let's take a closer look at the Information Design Lab's vision

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of the electronic newspaper of the future.

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On first glance, it looks just like a printed newspaper.

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In fact, you can browse stories and turn pages just as you would on paper.

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But if a story interests you, you can read it more deeply.

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Suppose this story about Bosnia catches your attention.

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Just touch the text, and the full story appears.

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What you read is no longer limited to the physical constraints

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of the printing press and production process.

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A story is edited for content and completeness, not for news ..... [check]

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And the tablet newspaper extends communication beyond the written word.

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Touch the map, and it comes alive,

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using the tools of sound and animation to tell the story.

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[Off voice, male] To understand the land divisions proposed today,

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one must look at how the diverse cultures of the Balkans, recently, were part of Yugoslavia,

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which formerly held a prominent position in Central Europe.

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[Off voice, female] Access to information concerns everyone.

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This vision of an electronic newspaper lets its readers move beyond physical barriers.

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If you can't read small type, enlarge it until the type size feels comfortable for you.

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Tablet newspapers can also combine video and audio clips with written stories.

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For example, in this sports story, sound bites and instant replays mean

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you don't have to worry about missing that exciting play. 
[subs for the sports comment marked [check] from here to 6:47 are guess work: someone who knows baseball should revise them]

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[off voice, male] The whole play is gone. [check]

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It's close in the air [check]

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it might be .... the score [check]

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but underneath, he's got a great arm [check]

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Here comes the rudder here comes the draw, they got him! [check]

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he never got to the plate [check]

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[Woman] Hey, look at this!

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[Male voice]... swing the bat here, the double play is gone [check]

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[off voice other male] It goes in the air, it might ... the score batting underneath [check]

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[Off voice, female] And unlike television, you can watch it as many time as you want,

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or slow the video down to look at just one frame.

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[off voice, some male] ... strikes the baseball, and ... is gone down and that is how... [check]

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[Off voice, female] The tablet paper even flags items of special interest to you.

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We've included a personal profile page where you can tell the newspaper

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to find ads or stories that match your interests.

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You can see an index of the entire newspaper

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with items that match your special interests highlighted,

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turn to a set of abstracts that match your personal profile,

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and jump from the index or the abstract to the full story.

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But moving to a new form doesn't mean you should give up anything,

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including the ability to save and share pieces of the newspaper.

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Just like the printed form, with the tablet newspaper, you can clip and save articles,

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or send them electronically to a friend.

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You can do all this without using a manual,

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because everyone already understands how a newspaper works.

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One of the things that helps readers navigate through the newspaper

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is its familiar look and feel.

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We know how to find everything in our newspaper, it's the one we read everyday.

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Retaining that look and feel is very important, because people don't buy generic news.

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They buy a specific newspaper with a branded identity.

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[Fidler] For most people, a newspaper is like a friend.

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It's somebody you know, you have come to trust.

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Over the last 15 years, there have been many attempts to develop electronic newspapers

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and many of the technologists who have been pursuing these objectives

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assume that information is simply a commodity

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and people really don't care where that information comes from

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as long as it matches their set of personal interests.

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I disagree with that view.

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People recognize the newspapers they subscribe to.

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They don't even have to see the name on the name plate.

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If it is on a news stand, they immediately recognize the New York Times

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or the Wall Street Journal or Philadelphia Inquirer.

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And it's also true for the local newspapers in small towns.

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And there is a loyalty attached to those - those names.

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When you buy that newspaper and you go to the newspaper, you know how it's organized.

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It feels comfortable to you.

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[Off voice, female] Advertising is an important of the Knight-Ridder model.

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It helps underwrite the cost of the newspaper,

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making the news accessible to everyone -- plus, people like advertising.

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It's a part of the local information package and at times,

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it can be as important as the news itself.

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Most people want to know what's on sale this week at the department store,

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and they want to clip the Sunday coupons.

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The tablet newspaper takes advertising to new dimensions,

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making the ad more useful to readers who are interested in it,

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without annoying readers who aren't at all interested in it.

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Just as you can go deeper into a story, you can go deeper into an ad.

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Plus, the tablet has two-way communication's capability.

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So you can buy and sell electronically,

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make reservations,

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or request more information.

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[Fidler] Well, you have to think of ads somewhat differently in electronic publishing.

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In a sense, the are very much like a shopping center.

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In the print model, we find that, you know, you have a surface

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and it's a two-dimensional world, so what you see is what you get.

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The advertiser presents their image or their sale

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but requires you then, after you've seen the ad, to go do something later with it.

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In the electronic world, we're really dealing with a three dimensional world.

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The advertising on the surface pages that you browse, just like a newspaper today,

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are in a sense, the store front window.

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If I'm interested in that ad and want to know more,

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it's simply a matter of touching that ad,

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and at that point, I go through an electronic doorway into the advertiser's space.

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And in that space might be a video clip for 15 or 20 seconds, sort of a TV commercial,

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but I'm in control.

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[Off voice, female] The tablet makes information 100% accessible.

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It goes where you go.

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If you don't want to read the paper, the tablet can read the stories to you.

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[woman driver] Read story.

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[Speech-to-text] Geneva. Adopting the language and locale of a bygone diplomatic era...

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[Off voice, female] And you can get your news anywhere.

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We envision kiosks that would download your publications onto electronic cards

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that go inside the tablet.

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So if you're doing business in Miami but your home town is Denver,

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you can still get your local paper delivered every morning.

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[Fidler] This is one of the most exciting places to be in the newspaper industry today.

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This is where, I think, we're going to play a role in changing - changing history.

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And the people that we have here, in our laboratory
are creative, energetic,

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and very concerned about the newspaper industry itself

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and how to build on the strength of the industry rather simply restarting all over again.

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There are many people who believe that newspapers are dinosaurs

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and that they are going to become the "road kill" on the information super-highway

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in a not too distant future.

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We believe exactly the opposite.

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We believe that newspapers, in fact, can evolve into a new form of media

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that blends the old familiar aspects of a newspaper

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with the new technologies that are emerging,

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so that you have the ability to read and browse and scan, as we do today,

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but at the same time, being able to interact with the newspaper,

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to interact with advertisers through your newspaper

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in ways that are not possible in print media today.

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(Presented by Knight-Ridder, Inc.)

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(Producer Brian Doubleday)

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(Script Teresa A. Martin)

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(Camera Brad Wallace)

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(Editor Izzie Jimenez)

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(Off-line Editor Lily Gabriel)

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(Associate Producers Deborah Fellner Bill Skeet)

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(Thanks to KRT News In Motion - National Junior College Athletic Association)

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(Clarion Harvest House, Boulder, Colorado)

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(Executive Producer Teresa A. Martin)