What good is free access to the electronic editions during a power outage?

Well, you can still read online by candlelight or flashlight ... duh!

Well, there were still a lot of people with power.

The Saturday edition printed, but it was 36 pages, I believe. Sunday should be OK. Crossing my fingers. The press plant is back up and running.

I'm out of power at my house and I wouldn't be surprised if it took a week to come back on. Wind storm of the century, they say.

Thanks for the update, Rich! Makes me feel bad about whining about my 4.5 hour outage. Went out just as "The Office" was starting and my mouth was literally forming the words "I hope we don't lose power now!" So, really, nothing to bitch about. So good luck and stay warm, pal!

I agree that these e-editions seem awkward when you can just read a more updated version online, but there's definitely a good chunk of readers that like them.

We started our e-edition/PDF-style copy less than six months ago, and there are actually a respectable number of paying subscribers.

Most importantly, ABC counts them as paid circulation, which can't yet be said for users/traffic/page views.

Hi
I just came across this posting and thought I'd share a little bit about why readers do like the full replica newspapers you find on PressDisplay.

Some of our subscribers really like the tradtional "look" of the paper because they know what sections they want to read and it is comfortable for them. They also like the fact that the "whole" paper is available, including classifieds and inserts. You can read stories in the full graphics view (which some might find awkward), but if you like just reading a text view, you can do that too.

Another thing subscribers like is that there is one user interface for all 350+ papers. On other sites like Google News or Yahoo, you can see a snippet of a story, but then you have to click on a link to take you to the newspaper's "unique" site to read the whole thing, which is different from every other newspaper's site. So you keep having to jump around the internet to read different stories from different papers. On sites like PressDisplay, all the papers are there in a familiar format, using a common user interface and powerful browsing, searching, monitoring, RSS, content management, instant translation and sharing tools.

PressDisplay is much more than an aggregated newspaper site and that's why people like it and why they keep coming back. Many have told me it is "addictive". And because they can personalize the site to their preferences, they get the news the way they want to read it.

Hope that helps. You might want to check out The PressDisplay Club to learn more (blog.pressdisplay.com)