The digital age has brought the death of many older industries and technologies as constant progress has brought about new methods, processes, products, etc. Perhaps one of the most publicly known and widely talked about issues regarding dying industries is that of the newspaper industry. While some will argue that newspapers aren’t dying (right), or that there is nothing wrong with the industry itself and it is merely going through a period of increased “leaching” by smaller news outlets and blogs, the newspaper industry as a whole isn’t doing so hot.
Of course, in the day and age of finger pointing and no one being able to take the blame for their own personal screw ups, it seems only natural to shove the blame off to other entities — precisely what many news outlets are doing. Anything and everything from blaming Google, news aggregators, to technology and electronics as a whole hasn’t esacped the newspapers industry assault on modern technology. However, there is at least one news organization that “gets it”, this digital revolution. That organization is NPR. A perfect example of how an old industry is molding into anew is briliantly illustrated with their new NPR iPhone app.
(Video of the app in action and more after the jump)
Again, the current popular trend if you’re in the news industry is to blame anyone attached to online search, news aggregation, or even electronics in general. However, the NPR is taking a vastly different approach with the NPR app for the iPhone showing that they are actually chosing to innovate their business model to stay relevant in the digital age. What’s so great about their new app you ask?
Of course any news app is going to act like a feed reader and pull down the latest in news stories. Heck, some will even link to other sources within the app and include image galleries to allow you to get a more visual appreciation for the story at hand. Further still, short video clips of certian news highlights throughout the day are even now being used to further richen the on the go news viewing process. Finally, the streaming of a radio station over the air allows audio only news junkies to get their fix quickly and efficiently.
But as stated before, the NPR iPhone app goes way beyond anyone elses’ current attempts and knocks one out of the park. For starters, like any other news app, it pulls in all of the news articles for the day (and past days) allowing you to stay up to date on whats news seperated into mulitple categories for easy navigation. However, the real prime feature of the NPR app is that of the radio streaming. This isn’t just any ‘ol radio streaming however as the app has access to over 1000+ archived and live NPR radio programs bringing an unprecedented amount of news and talk radio to the iPhone platform.
Again, while many news outlets and organizations are having problems keeping the lights on let alone making a buck on the news and staying relevant, the NPR has shown that embracing technology instead of locking it up behind gimmicky (and poorly conceived) paywalls isn’t the right solution. The NPR is flourishing in an era where old time newspapers are having trouble staying in the black ink proves that technology needs to be embraced properly to further spread information and news, not hinder it. Don’t take my word for it however, download the NPR iPhone app for yourself (iTunes link) and see just how news is supposed to read, listened to, and spread in this digital age.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDboD5OxgV0[/youtube]
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