How newspapers tried to invent web--but failed

Marvin Katz calls our attention to an article on Slate by Jack Shafer headlined:

How Newspapers Tried to Invent the Web. But failed

The article describes how newspapers have tried to keep up with technology and mentions a couple of innovations tried by Knight Ridder. The article might be one to save because it gives a sort of techology timeline for the entry of newspapers into the world wide web.

Some history graphs to save:

The San Jose Mercury News broke from AOL and started on the Web in February 1995. USA Today launched a Web edition in August 1995. Later that year, the Boston Globe started its Boston.com, and the Los Angeles Times announced plans to leave Prodigy. The New York Times and Washington Post got webby in 1996. After that, few newspapers held back....More than 750 North American dailies were publishing on the Web in April 1998, and by July 1999 only two of the 100 largest dailies were not.

Newspapers deserve bragging rights for having homesteaded the Web long before most government agencies and major corporations knew what a URL was. Given the industry's early tenancy, deep pockets, and history of paranoid experimentation with new communication forms, one would expect to find plenty in the way of innovations and spinoffs.

Click on the headline to read the full article.