Canada gets more multilingual digital newspapers

December 18, 2006 in Canada, multiplatform journalism, new media, newspapers

I have always had doubts about the purpose of offering a digital edition of a newspaper. By this, I mean a digital reproduction of the paper version.

Why take something that is designed to be read as a physical paper product and turn it into an inferior reproduction on a computer screen?

It seems that Canwest has no such doubts. It is now offering downloadable digital editions of 11 newspapers in 12 languages other than English, reports Media in Canada.

You can also have the newspaper read aloud to you in these languages. Though why you would want to listen to something that was written for the eye rather than the ear is beyond me.

At a time when media organisations are eeking out meagre resources for their online services, investing in digital editions appears misguided.

A better strategy would be to improve the newspaper websites on Canada.com and offer these sites in a number of languages.

The move by Canwest is just another misguided step by a mainstream media organisations which fails to understand that the internet is a new medium.