These initiatives were praised by a number of other publishers, who were reluctant to do the same, for three reasons: the cost of posting thousands of pages online, problems linked to copyright, and what they saw as a “competition” between digital versions for free and print versions for a fee.
1995 > THE PRINT PRESS WENT ONLINE
[Summary] The print press going online in the 1990s led the way to print books going online a few years later, thus the need for this chapter. The first electronic versions of print newspapers were available in the early 1990s through commercial services like America Online and CompuServe. In 1995, major newspapers like The New York Times, The Washington Post or The Wall Street Journal began offering websites with a partial or full version of their latest issue, as well as online archives. In the United Kingdom, the daily Times and the Sunday Times set up a common website called Times Online, with a way to create a personalized edition. The weekly publication The Economist went online too, as well as the daily Le Monde and Libération in France, the daily El País in Spain, and the weekly Focus and Der Spiegel in Germany.
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The print press going online in the 1990s led the way to print books going online a few years later, thus the need for this chapter.
The first electronic versions of print newspapers were available in the early 1990s through commercial services like America Online and CompuServe.
In 1995, newspapers began offering websites with a partial or full version of their latest issue, available freely or through subscription (free or paid), as well as online archives.
For example, The New York Times site could be accessed free of charge, with articles of the print daily, breaking news updated every ten minutes, and original reporting only available online. The site of The Washington Post gave the daily news online, with a full database of articles, with images, sound and videos. The site of The Wall Street Journal was available with a paid subscription, with 100,000 subscribers in 1998.
In the United Kingdom, the daily Times and the Sunday Times set up a common website called Times Online, with a way to create a personalized edition. The weekly publication The Economist went online too, as well as the daily Le Monde and Libération in France, the daily El País in Spain, and the weekly Focus and Der Spiegel in Germany.
"More than 3,600 newspapers now publish on the internet", Eric K. Meyer stated in an essay published in late 1997 on the website of AJR/NewsLink. "A full 43% of all online newspapers now are based outside the United States. A year ago, only 29% of online newspapers were located abroad. Rapid growth, primarily in Canada, the United Kingdom, Norway, Brazil and Germany, has pushed the total number of non-U.S. online newspapers to 1,563. The number of U.S. newspapers online also has grown markedly, from 745 a year ago to 1,290 six months ago to 2,059 today. Outside the United States, the United Kingdom, with 294 online newspapers, and Canada, with 230, lead the way. In Canada, every province or territory now has at least one online newspaper. Ontario leads the way with 91, Alberta has 44, and British Columbia has 43. Elsewhere in North America, Mexico has 51 online newspapers, 23 newspapers are online in Central America and 36 are online in the Caribbean. Europe is the next most wired continent for newspapers, with 728 online newspaper sites. After the United Kingdom, Norway has the next most — 53 — and Germany has 43. Asia (led by India) has 223 online newspapers, South America (led by Bolivia) has 161 and Africa (led by South Africa) has 53. Australia and other islands have 64 online newspapers."