iNewspaper?

David Carr of The New York Times writes an interesting piece on how technology will soon put conventional print media out of business.

I think that the way conventional print media is embracing technology is something to be proud of. Blogs are evolving from their humble beginnings as personal diaries and mediocre rants to more informative and credible ones. Almost every major newspaper in the world now has most of its content available online for free. Podcasts? Slate.com, a purely online magazine to start with, has become one of the forerunners in this area.

Zubair Salim of Picsel Technologies gave me a demonstration yesterday, on how his firm's application would be used in phones such as the Samsung D600 and Nokia 7610. Accessing Marie Claire's magazine content on the tiny Samsung was just one of the things he demonstrated.

But I like newspapers and magazines. They feel more personal and tangible -I'm sure you'll agree that a personally handwritten letter gives you more utility compared to an email.

I won't always read my news from a physical newspaper nowadays. Why pay 60p for The Guardian when I can just log on for news on MSNBC?

When I do feel like indulging however, I'll pick up a copy of The Sunday Times (Sunday papers have excellent pull-outs), Vanity Fair or yes, Glamour.

I may not read most of their content; but I will lovingly flip through their pages, browse through the collection of stories and random bits of information, savour beautiful photos and great layouts, admire the editors who have carefully planned and moulded the form and nature of content featured, and tear out a picture of Gwen Stefani and stick it on my wall.