Jeff Jarvis moves the conversation on to books

Jeff Jarvis has recently started to include a view on books as part of his blog at Buzzmachine and comment on New Media in the printed Guardian. This may be an area where PDF has a better case. He has been arguing for a while that news is now a conversation and that the assumed authority of the journalist as lecturer is a thing of the past. In May his blog gave a warning shot - "I have nothing against books" before continuing "But the book is an outmoded means of communicating information. And efforts to update it are hampered because, cuturally, we give undue reverence to the form for the form’s sake."

As often happens the process of responding to comments results in a tighter piece of writing by the time the printed version turns up in the Guardian - June 5th, headline "Books will disappear. Print is where words go to die." The Buzzmachine approach to news has recently found some support on the new blog by Roy Greenslade. So far the Saturday Review remains solidly bookish but there may be a change eventually. Meanwhile Buzzmachine is well worth following as a guide to where the Guardian may be going.

The actual Guardian policy about moving online is far from clear. There have been 'digital editions' for a while, the full content of the print version with photos and illustration, available for subscription. But this has not been well promoted in the UK. The impression is that only people outside the Uk are encouraged to find it. Alan Rusbridger apparently believes that 'Comment Is Free' should be freely available so maybe the subscription model is not seen as longterm. The blog on IPEX2002 will continue to speculate about this and there will be an update here when clear information is available.

The digital editions are currently the best example in the UK of what is possible with PDF. The Guardian could be part of the conversation on a new form of book.

See article at OhmyNews
Guardian Print Now in Full Colour