I was shown the media’s future 16 years ago: now with the iPad, it’s here – The Observer

Alan Rusbridger on iPad and future of news:

"In the space of four days my sense of scale has changed. On Tuesday, my new iPad seemed like a rather overblown iPhone. By Friday, I found myself irritated at trying to read emails or type on the iPhone, which already seemed mean and cramped. A tabloid newspaper page seemed exotically large, a broadsheet like a street hoarding. The iPad just seemed natural. Maybe Apple has simply rediscovered what book publishers, over the space of 400 years, came to a more or less settled view on – the right shape of page for what the human eye and hands feel easy with.

[…]

Has the Guardian (or the Observer, for we share the same digital space) ever looked more beautiful? […] The NYT browser version doesn't look bad, either. The BBC, as ever, is irritatingly good

[…]

Will it catch on? It feels like a transformative interim step […]

Will it transform newspaper finances? […] only if you switched off the printing presses."

Del.ici.us tags: ipad apple alanrusbridger future journalism newspapers