Online Cop-Out of the First Bailout Era Song

While checking out nytimes.com today, I noticed an above-the-fold story on a country song. Guess it’s the first “bailout era” tune. I thought this story would make a good example of the places the web can go that traditional newspapers cannot.

To access the story, I had to become a registered user. I actually took this as good news: I’ve been perusing the site for weeks now and haven’t needed a login in to view any other content — this story must be good!Registration was free and pretty simple. It seems like a way to get information on who is using the website (required information included household income, job, and year of birth, etc.), which is probably more valuable than the nominal fee they could have charged for the access.

I finally got to the story only to find out that it was as flat as can be, taking no advantage of the bells and whistles the online medium provides. You can’t even listen to the song that the story is on! I expected to not only be able to listen to the song but also watch the music video and check out other tracks from the artist. If online news is going to go anywhere, it has got to take advantage of the tools the internet provides — especially in situations like this where the reader’s experience could be greatly enriched by the medium.

In case you are as disappointed as I was (and to demonstrate how easy adding some depth would have been) here’s a YouTube video of the singer commenting on and performing the song before it was recorded for the album.

The singer’s website is also worth checking out. You can read interviews, watch videos, download ring tones, share your own stories, and more.

In only somewhat related news…

As of today, Detroit’s daily newspapers are no longer being printed on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. And today was an especially important news day in Detroit with huge, just-breaking General Motors, Crystler, and Final Four stories. Readers are expected to get their Monday – Wednesday and Saturday news from the web instead. Here’s the full story.