Subject: Re: Push vs. Pull From: "Eric Meyer" Date: Tue, 17 Sep 1996 19:56:57 -0500
How the Web Was Won
Subject: Re: Push vs. Pull From: "Eric Meyer" Date: Tue, 17 Sep 1996 19:56:57 -0500
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> We've had many of our users comment they'd rather get an email with the
> top stories of the day, than log onto our site and check the latest
> news.  Most people aren't actively looking for information, and don't
> want to--the push model is much more appropriate for them than relying
> on them to pull down your page.

They would indeed -- for a while. At least that's what I found when
I looked into this about a year and a half ago. Eventually, people
stop opening up the e-mail message, too, particularly if they get a
lot of e-mail. Most get deleted unread.

A lot of all of this relates to novelty. Honestly, now, how many of
you have changed within the past month all the settings on your After
Dark screen blanker that you couldn't stop messing with two years
ago? How many of you have changed within the past two months the
collection of event sounds that you used to play with everyday? After 
the novelty wears off, things like that have to do something for you 
or you give them up.

Until and unless someone finds something wrong with the current way 
of receiving news -- primarily by highly portable, instantly 
archival, already delivered, stares-out-at-you, easier-to-read paper 
(or even-easier-to-watch TV) -- you must offer something extremely 
different or extremely niche-oriented online to last beyond the 
novelty period.

For most newspapers, that means small-niche information-retrieval
services and general services to distant readers who cannot
subscribe in print. 

At the risk of stealing the very nice headline Mindy McAdams
suggested for her AJR NewsLink column last week: News is old news.
Unless you offer something along the lines of what she suggests 
(see http://www.newslink.org/mmcol2.html), once the novelty wears off 
you aren't even tomorrow's fish wrap.
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