Creating a Web Development Newspaper. Thoughts? | Hacker News Reader

Creating a Web Development Newspaper. Thoughts?

5 pointsianwootten9 comments

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.

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.

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?

webpap.com

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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.

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).

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.

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

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

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!

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.

Why a newspaper? Why not a blog?

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.

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