Flipping through the pages of the daily newspaper is a ritual that many are reluctant to forgo, even if it arrives late, wet and ink-stained on the doorstep.
But what if you could replicate the experience of reading the print edition electronically?
Earlier this week, the venerable print icon The New York Times launched The New York Times Electronic Edition, an exact digital replica of its New York edition that is normally not available in print outside the metropolitan New York area.
Now, instead of waiting for the paper to arrive on the doorstep, you can download an electronic version overnight, open it on the laptop on your way to work and delve through articles at the office.
Eventually, anyone with an Internet connection will be able to download the Electronic Edition to their laptop or PC, paying on a subscription or single copy basis. Currently, the service is only available to users with access to broadband.
The new electronic edition offers "virtually the same reading experience of the printed newspaper itself," said Scott Heekin-Canedy, senior vice president of circulation for the Times.
"We see this as another means to distribute our newspaper to significant market segments that we can't serve because it's logistically difficult."
"There's a latent market out there," said Stuart Garner, chairman of digital circulation service NewsStand. "There's an opportunity for this product for the end user who needs to read the paper or would like to but currently can't. There are probably millions of Americans who live outside the U.S. for whom this is a target product."
In addition to ex-pats and business travelers, the newspaper will reach students equipped with laptops and high-speed Internet access in their dorm rooms.
A seven-day subscription costs $6.70 per week, a five-day subscription costs $3.25 per week and a Sunday-only subscription costs $3.40 per week. Users can download a single edition for an introductory rate of 65 cents.
At 70 percent off the national print edition rate, that's a significant annual saving, Heekin-Canedy said.
Users can zoom in on photos and text, browse page-by-page, start with a particular section and jump to another page.
But will users pay for this enhanced digital reading experience when they can already access articles from The New York Times on the Web for free?
Sandy Goodman, for one, prefers to read the free version of the Times on the Web, as he said in this online posting:
"I'll stick to the online edition of the Times. It saves me hundreds of dollars and I can take the minor inconveniences of not having every piece of information in the electronic edition. I used to subscribe to the print edition, but a dollar or so a day is a lot of money, and the Times is a lot of paper, especially when you live in another city as I do and really need and want to get the local newspaper. Between them, the Times and the Washington Post added up to an awful lot of sheer paper to read, have around the house and throw away."
But others are willing to pay for electronic versions that offer a more satisfying reading experience than current news on the Web.
"I do not personally find newspapers on the Web to my taste," Garner said. "They may be free, but I don't like them."
But Heekin-Canedy believes that the Electronic Edition will complement, rather than replace, what the Times already offers on the Web.
"It's just another way for us to distribute our newspaper."
"This is a medium that will not replace the newspaper, but will become a substantial, additional delivery channel," Garner agreed.
The Times' move toward digital subscriptions could be a sign of things to come as publishers stop giving away content for free or limit what they put on their websites.
"The time has come when publishers are going to start charging for content," Garner predicts. "Why should people get the material for free when it costs to produce?"
Besides cost, technical requirements might prevent some from signing up for the Electronic Edition.
Users can download only one copy at a time to a computer. Also, the Electronic Edition expires after seven days, so if a reader forgets to clip an article, they won't be able to retrieve it a week later.
For now, the Electronic Edition is available to broadband users only. Eventually, the digital replica will be accessible for dial-up modems.
In addition, Macintosh users may not be able to access the new electronic edition. Currently, there is no Macintosh-compatible version of the NewsStand Reader; however, it's planned for the future.
NewsStand has been overwhelmed with the number of newspapers around the world that want to sign up for their digital delivery service.
Other newspapers will likely follow suit, Heekin-Canedy said.
"They have nothing to lose and everything to gain."
