

Creating a Web Development Newspaper. Thoughts? - ianwootten

A little over a year ago, I had the idea of working toward creating a publication for web developers, written by the designers / developers themselves. I quite fancied the idea of making it newspaper based, given it was possible through newspaperclub in the UK at the time.<p>I had a little amount of buzz regarding it, through local communities and some friends but ultimately no one stepped up to create articles for it. That's how it's remained since.<p>I still have a passion for the idea and was wondering if any HN'ers would like to shed their thoughts - would you purchase a newspaper on this theme? Is HN all you'll ever need? Would you be interested in submitting an article if things were to start moving?<p>webpap.com
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duopixel
Sorry for being a buzz killer, but I think an old fashioned newspaper about
Web Development is as good as a telegraph transmission about a phone
conversation.

I do follow Web Design/Development publications such as A List Apart, and I
often find myself copying and pasting code, or going back to them through
google. This is something I can't do in a newspaper. Also, most online web-dev
stuff is top notch and free, it would be difficult competing against that.

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natural_order
The question is what will this newspaper do that HN doesn't. Perhaps an
approach would be creating a friendly and attention grabbing wrapper for HN,
one that shows "trending" stories and popular comments to greater effect.
Positioning questions and showcases in their own spot to maximise interest.

Also bear in mind who you're making this for. The developer mindset may
require page efficiency (size of text, number of features), while designers
may value page effectiveness (pictures, layout).

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blcArmadillo
I'd have to agree with everyone else on here that this probably wouldn't take
off. Specifically with services like Flipbook coming out I don't see how even
writing a HN wrapper would give you a real advantage.

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jaz
Hacker Monthly is basically an HN wrapper, and seems to be doing well - 5,000
subscribers as of a few months ago[2].

[1] <http://hackermonthly.com/> [2]
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2445314>

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pspeter3
I would be interested in submitting an article but not paying for it. I think
it's an interesting idea and would allow developers to show case their
talents. On the other hand, it's probably hard to draw people away from HN

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cgmedia
I follow the .net publications out of the UK (Future Publishing). They are
gorgeously produced magazines and CDs, have full digital archives, are
prohibitively expensive and worth every penny!

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pdenya
I like the idea but the only way I would pay for it is if it provided some
amount of value that I couldn't get elsewhere. I like reading online.

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jasonmkey
Why a newspaper? Why not a blog?

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ianwootten
I guess my reason is selfish. I prefer to read this way. I find content I read
in print tends to have more of an impact on me when I can take it away and
properly absorb it.

