SunStar.com.ph no longer FREE.

[LytSlpr]

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Announcing the e-paper
by Nini B. Cabaero
Beyond 30

On the occasion of the Cebu Press Freedom Week 2006, I write about the latest innovation in the Cebu community press — the electronic newspaper.

The Sun.Star Cebu is the first to have an electronic newspaper. It is available to anyone, anytime, in any part of the world who can access the Internet.

An electronic newspaper, or e-paper in short, is an exact digital replica of the printed paper. The e-paper would have everything found in the newspaper — aside from the news, the horoscope, the classified ads and the obituary, which are not necessarily found on the newspaper’s website. In this respect, the e-paper is better than the newspaper’s website.

But, then, we are talking about different media products. From the newspaper which is one media product, Sun.Star Cebu has developed its website which is a second product (and from it, the Sun.Star network website) and now its e-paper, a third product. Each of these three has its individual benefits and limitations.

The latest is the e-paper. It is updated daily. Its market is the Cebuano abroad or those living outside Cebu. Cebuanos abroad have said they missed the newspaper they used to know. Now, they do not have to miss it anymore.

The e-paper is available through the Sun.Star website at www. sunstar.com.ph, and for now or until the end of September, it is free. Once the payment scheme begins, those who wish to subscribe can pay with their credit card.

The price is in US dollars and a bit prohibitive for the local buyer at $1 per current issue. (The subscription rate goes down if the period is for a longer time.) The printed paper would normally still come out earlier than the e-paper. The newspaper would hit the streets first before the updated e-paper could be accessible online at about 8 a.m.

Once inside the e-paper, the reader may click on a story or photo to get an enlarged view. The story or photo may be sent to a friend by e-mail or printed out. If the reader’s computer has a text-to-speech engine, the story may be read out loud.

On page one of the e-paper, a menu on the left side features a listing of pages, and within a page, the stories, and within a story, the first paragraph or the lead where the reader samples the story without going to the page or the article itself.

Sending an e-mail to a columnist is easy. Open the column and click on the link to the columnist’s e-mail address.

The e-paper is searchable. And, it has an archive of the issues of the past seven days.

Like with any media product made possible with technology, it is the hope that the e-paper would benefit both the public and the media.

[omad]

this sucks bigtime

[clarkhkent]

wala gibutang kon pila ang subscription fee sa?

[omad]

wala gibutang kon pila ang subscription fee sa?

"The price is in US dollars and a bit prohibitive for the local buyer at $1 per current issue."

[clarkhkent]

"The price is in US dollars and a bit prohibitive for the local buyer at $1 per current issue."

waaaa....mao na ni resulta sa dinali dali ug basa.... naa gyud malat-angan....

[jugs_06]

dang.............

that sucks............

[pridi]

mao na jud ni style para naay mo gasto sa ilang mga expenses, which in the first place, ngano ila mang gi libre pag sugod? and then karon kay ila nang pa bayran? hahay... sa una libre ang text, pagka human kay tungod daghan naman, pa bayaran na nila...

[brian_d]

ngii.... wag na uy. mag cebu daily news na lang ko.
lahi ra ilang style sa inq7.net which maintains a separate editorial line up from the PDI newspaper.

pangwarta ra ni, the additional cost incurred is just the acquisition of the software needed to upload the data and maintenance of site. pwe! i suppose the online version was losing because it could not generate enough advertising revenues to support it. I'll give this one six months, lugi na ni ilang online "paid" version.

[slakker]

what the... 50 pesos for an issue! sobra ra. dili siguro cebuano ang target market nila...

[godCode]

yeah... gi kalimtan na nila na majority of cebuanos dont speaka in dollars...