Tomorrow's News Today!

Newspapers, as in MSM, as in ink-stained wretches, as in The Sunday Paper, aren't doing so well right now. Many have branched out into the internet, and people do read things posted there. They have yet to figure out how to make it WORK, as in: making piles of money. Here's a solution:

Instead of making the internet experience awkward and disjointed, that is to say, jumping from page to page while trying to dodge Flash-based ads in order to read a simple story, why not allow the reader to create his own newspaper? A newspaper with the things in it that the reader wants to read, instead of a mish-mosh of type and images that only a hyperactive child could stand to look at.

Here's how it would work:

The reader fills in a basic form for the look and feel of the paper- columns, column widths, fonts, etc,. Then the reader selects the general content for each section, topics, writers, opinion pieces, even comics. Not so hard, and you'd only have to set it up once, making minor adjustments later.

Not too original? OK, but here comes the magic part:

Every night, while you sleep, the internet elves put it all together for you!
So that, when you log on, the whole paper is assembled already, in your computer, with today's news, in a comfortable format, with the features you want and all you would have to do is scroll... this would be so cool with a wide-screen monitor! (HDTV anyone?) Of course, you could have animations, and you would have a certain number of ads- probably a percentage of total area- but also formatted by you.

I might even pay for that.

And I know who I'd put on my "comics page".