Online vs. print — the pros and cons

In addition to uni, I also work part time as an editorial production assistant for a company that produces both print guides and corresponding websites. While I recognise that print is a dying medium, with online quickly taking over and print sales continuing to fall, I do enjoy working with print, often more than web-based content.

I appreciate the absolute attention to detail that goes in to producing print content, because once it’s printed there’s no going in and making a quick edit if you find a mistake, it’s there for life.

When producing our guides at work this is the usual process and minimum level of work that goes in each year:

• First edit — one person creates a copy of the previous guide and begins updating information for the next edition. This includes fact checking and updating all statistics, data and contact details, making any changes to editorial and beginning to write new content for sections such as ‘What’s new’.
• Second edit  — a second person now goes through the initial edits and makes further changes, also fact checking as they go.
• Final edit — the original person goes through the second edits to approve and check any further changes.
• After this point the content is usually sent to the typesetter.
• Once we receive updated content back from the typesetter, we then proof the content again, checking all changes have been made and no mistakes have been introduced. This will again involve both editors and happens multiple times as drafts are sent back and forth. We will also have one or two other members of the publishing department have a look over the content.
• Our advertising coordinator will also look through the typeset and I will compare the typeset to spreadsheets and order forms to make sure all advertisements and profiles have been included correctly.
• Once the final typeset is sent to the printer that’s it. If we find any typos or mistakes after that then there is nothing that can be done until we begin proofing next year’s guide.

This is what I like about print — the extreme attention to detail that goes into producing print material and the highly polished content that is produced as a result.

Don’t get me wrong though, I do appreciate and often utilise all the possibilities that come with working in an online medium. With my own personal blog I’m always embedding tweets or YouTube videos, using GIFS and linking to other websites — none of which you can do with print. No one wants to actually type a web address out in their browser and it’s always a dilemma when you need to include a complicated, ugly URL that ends up going across three lines and, until we enter the wizarding world of Harry Potter, we are limited to printing still images — there’s no using videos or moving images in print.

Using an online medium is also more accessible. Users have the ability to post information at anytime from anywhere and quickly (producing our guides takes several months of work). So if a major news story breaks at 9.30 on a Saturday morning, someone can write up an article and post it immediately instead of waiting until they return to the office on Monday morning. Another bonus of the online medium is anyone and everyone can utilise it. In just a few minutes I can jump on WordPress and create my own blog, for free. Being a uni student I do not have the funds or support to start up my own music magazine (well not without a significant amount of work, time and fundraising) but I can, and have, started my own music blog on WordPress to act as a portfolio for future employers. This is where I make use of another aspect of the online world — social media — using Twitter to promote my content and trying to gain followers and views for my blog.

What I would like to see with online content is people applying the same amount of care and attention to detail that goes into print. Just because you can go back and edit it, doesn’t mean you don’t have to read through and edit your content in the same way you would for print. I am sick and tired of reading online articles that clearly haven’t been edited and are riddled with typos and mistakes. At the very least, once an article has been posted on the website you should have a read through, make sure it is formatted correctly and check that all links and videos are working (actually clicking the links to make sure they work), which unfortunately so many people do not do. This is my main issue with the online platform, more often than not it is just not the same quality as print. Yes it’s fantastic to be able to include YouTube videos, but if the writing itself is poor and the website is really not aesthetically pleasing then what’s the point?

Working with print editorial has really ingrained in me a sense of meticulousness that I now try to apply to my online work. When we write an article for one of our websites it is read by three people and sees at least three edits. I’ll write the initial article, send it to the editorial coordinator for proofing, she’ll send it back to me for a final proof then it gets sent to our manager for approval. After all that it gets sent back to me to upload to the website where I will then read through it a final time and check links.

The online platform has so much potential, but many people seem to get carried away with all the glitz and glamour, or just fall back on its ease of use, and ignore the basics of editing and writing content.

To end, here are a few of my tips on posting content to an online medium that I have picked up over time:

• If you can, have a colleague or someone else read over your work before it goes online. At the very least, make sure you have a thorough read through yourself.
• Always check what the content looks like on the live site. This way you’ll be able to see if there are any formatting issues (for example no space between paragraphs) and just check that it all looks good. At this point you should also check that any links, videos, etc. are working and have one last final read through just in case errors were introduced when you copied the content across.
• Stick to a style guide when writing content online to maintain consistency on your website. If you don’t have a house style guide, or if it’s just your own personal blog or website, consider writing one. It can just be simple things like how you format dates, numbers, titles, quotes, etc.
• Try to keep the layout of your website simple. If you cram too many links, advertisements or widgets on your page it is just going to look cluttered and will make it confusing for users.
• Have a go at linking to your website from Twitter if you’ve never done so before. Twitter is a great tool for bloggers as it provides a quick, easy and free way to get traffic to your site. WordPress makes this really easy to do, just click on the Twitter button at the bottom of a post:

If it’s not there you may have to configure it in your settings.

There you have it, all my rants and ramblings about online and print media. It’s a bit of a lengthy one but it’s a topic I’m really passionate about.