Most publishing is now "electronic" in the sense that books, magazines, and newspapers are prepared on computers, and exist as computer files before they are printed on paper. Often there are advantages to giving readers access to the electronic versions of publications as well as--or even instead of--the printed versions.
Print publications have lots of advantages. Paper is pleasant to handle, ready to read, and very portable: you can read it almost anywhere. On the other hand, print has its weaknesses. Paper is expensive, and articles are often cut to fit the space available. Printing and distributing paper is expensive and takes time. Printed materials are expensive to store and almost impossible to search. Electronic publishing offers solutions to all these problems.
Suppose a publisher makes the electronic copy of a newspaper or magazine available from the net, perhaps on the Internet’ s World Wide Web. No paper is used and disc space is cheap, so Internet publishing costs very little. Articles don’ t have to be cut. Internet publishing is fast, and readers can access material as soon as it becomes available: within minutes, instead of the next day, next week or next month. Internet publishing goes beyond geographical boundaries: the humblest local paper can be read everywhere from New York to London to Delhi to Tokyo. Delivery costs are low because there are no newsagents to pay, and no postal charges: readers pick up the bills for their on-line sessions. Also, computer-based publications are simple to store and every word can be searched electronically.
At the moment, newspapers and magazines, TV and radio stations, news agencies and book publishers are making content freely available on the Web because they are competing for "mindshare". Perhaps they want to find out if they can attract and hold an audience on line, or perhaps they’ re afraid of missing out because "everyone else is doing it". But don’ t count on things staying that way. Publishers are not in business to lose money.
The electronic version of newspapers has all the following advantages except that______