Great article from the Wired blog.....



Times Techie Envisions the Future of News
By Ryan Singel

Nick Bilton, an editor in the New York Times research and development lab, doesn't think much of newspaper. In fact, he doesn't even get the Sunday paper delivered to his house.

Thankfully for Bilton and his employer, he's bullish on news. It's just the paper he hates.

"Paper is dying, but it's just a device," Bilton told Wired.com ahead of his talk Tuesday at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology conference in San Jose, California. "Replacing it with pixels is a better experience."

Bilton, a youthful technologist who programs mashups in his free time, is charged with inventing the future for the Gray Lady in an era of troubled times for newspapers. Fewer people are subscribing, classified ads are decamping for the internet and online revenues aren't making up for lost print ads.

But Bilton envisions a world where news is freed from the confines of newsprint and becomes better.

He speaks of smart content, smart sensors, avatars reading the news to you from your television and even interactive newspaper boxes that print out a personalized paper and automagically orders your customary drink at a nearby Starbucks.

That means Bilton is thinking of a world where traditional news stories show up on little mobile screens, laptops, e-book readers and television screens.

"If I start reading something on my laptop, why should I see it on my phone if I've already read it?," Bilton asked, pointing to one of problems he wants to fix.

And what if the accelerometer and cell site data indicate he's going 60 mph? Well, then the Times mobile app on his cell phone should read the news aloud.

Ebooklongform That app might look something like the upcoming Adobe Air reader the group helped build for the Times-owned International Herald Tribune.

The reader gracefully re-lays out pages based on screen shape, uses Flash for video and interactive ads, and provides an option for a bird's-eye view of stories to let users browse the paper. That's perfect, Bilton said, for people using reading the news on 800-pixel-wide netbook screens.

In-depth reporting can get a second life being re-packaged as a standalone e-book. Stories can be made to work with networked televisions, letting people see video interviews, high-res pictures, map views and timelines. They could even read excerpts from or even buy books written by experts quoted in a story.

The Times is already adding notes to stories about how users can follow a story by sending a text message and soon will be adding computer-readable images called semacodes, as well.

Bilton's lab is working on a custom NYTimes application that will only show stories you're interested in and let you save videos for playback at home. It would allow you to use your phone as a TV remote control when at home.Customprintout

But don't all of those technology changes mean that newspapers will die?

Bilton thinks not, pointing out that in 1876 news accounts of the telephone predicted that concert halls and churches would be empty because of the new device, and a year later, predicted that the phonograph would kill the telephone and concerts, because people could choose when to listen.

"Newspapers and news organizations are not going anywhere," Bilton said.

Except onto your phone, e-book reader, laptop and maybe even your shower wall.