Yesterday Federal Capital Press, publisher of The Canberra Times, The Chronicle and Valley View, began a new publishing venture _ publication on the Internet at the address www.canberratimes.com. It is a twofold venture. It publishes to the people of Canberra in a form different from the print medium which they have hitherto been used to. At the same time it publishes The Canberra Times, The Chronicle and Valley View nationwide and worldwide.
Not, of course, that New Yorkers or Londoners are waiting breathless for the latest snippets from The Canberra Times, but many Canberrans and other Australians living or travelling overseas will be. And nationally, The Canberra Times publishes many things of national interest which hitherto had been limited in their circulation because of print. Now much of it will be available for small cost.
But it is in Canberra and region that the new form of publication carries most significance. This venture is not just a print version on the Net. It is different in several significant ways. Interactivity is perhaps the most important of them. canberratimes.com provides a vehicle for Canberrans to be more selective; to hit information more accurately and efficiently; to contribute to community debate about major issues in a more instantaneous way and to for them provide information about what they are doing to a wider audience.
Not all of this interactivity is immediately available; but it will come. Moreover, the percentage of Internet users in Canberra, though far higher than the national average, is still small. But it is growing and will probably grow faster because such a significant Canberra publisher is on the Net.
The interactivity provides enormous new opportunity for advertisers. In the major classifications of real estate and motor vehicles, for example, readers will be able to use search engines to quickly hone down the range of prospects (four bedrooms, two bathrooms, Belconnen, $160,000-$200,000, for example), and then the five or six advertisements can “”explode” with extra information, photographs and e-mail to the agent.
The next major difference is content. Print often presents space problems. Material often has to be cut back or material with a long shelf life can be run only once. Electronic publishing enables, for example, sports draws and ladders, restaurant and movie guides and service guides to remain available beyond a single day.
Further, the electronic version will give us the opportunity to bring fuller versions of key stories.
The electronic version can also be more instant for major events. But canberratimes.com will not pretend to compete on the Net in the field of instantaneous, continually updating international news; others with far greater resources can do it better while we concentrate our resources on Canberra, both as the city we live in and as the national political, administrative and judicial capital.
As time goes on, canberratimes.com will build up a significant database which will be searchable in a way that the print version is not. This will be of great help in education and other fields.
Despite all of these advantages, the electronic version is an additional service, not a substitute for the comfort and convenience of print.
For many, of course, the new electronic venture will mean nothing. Those without computers and those not interested in getting information electronically will not see what the fuss is about. That is understandable. Those people can rest assured that the print version of The Canberra Times will always land on lawn in the early morning bringing them a reliable selection of world, national and local news and sport and other features.