All the news that's fit to be digitized
This week, it's all about The Big Picture.
Using Yahoo's directory as a rough guide, there are more than 9000 newspapers around the world that also have a presence on the web. And while most newshounds will visit more than one of these online outlets in the course of a day (don't look so embarrassed, we knew it all along), anyone with an interest in getting a thorough cross-section of regional and global coverage is in for a challenge. (Unless, of course, you enjoy the thought of hours ticking by while you survey dozens of websites - trying to remember which one, from which region, gave how much importance to what.)
Fortunately, there are sites out there doing all the collecting, categorizing, and collating for us, with two of the most popular examples being Newsmap, and the Newseum's Today's Front Pages exhibit. And just as fortunately (at least for the purposes of this review), each one offers a very different method of gathering the world's reporting under a single virtual roof.
The more basic -and more visual- of the two sites, Today's Front Pages is a 'photographic' collection of almost 400 Page Ones from more than 40 countries. (The actual number varies from day to day.) Receiving electronic files from participating publications every morning, the Newseum presents them as grids of thumbnail images - a method which allows visitors to simultaneously compare dozens of editorial decisions about which stories and pictures merited the most important real estate for that day's edition.
Online, the collection is divided into a series of JavaScripted pages, with a grid of about 50 thumbnails on each page. As surfers rollover each thumbnail, a larger copy of the front page appears on the right of the screen, and if you want more detail, full-screen versions are available with a click of the mouse. Lifesize facsimiles can be downloaded in PDF format. (Each page also links to its paper's website in case you want to follow some piece of writing to its conclusion.)
In default mode, Front Pages displays its collection alphabetically by region (US papers first, arranged by state). For those pursuing similarities, this arrangement makes the most sense since, barring the relatively rare events that receive global front page coverage, neighboring publications are more likely to be covering the same stories with the same perspective. This can make things a bit tedious though, for visitors who might not want to wade though some 300+ icons before getting to the latest editions from Turkey or Venezuela, so Front Pages also offers Map View and List by Region pages - providing access to the papers by interactive maps or indexes of publication names and countries of origin.
Front Pages has no provisions for a continuous archive of past editions, but the site does keep exhibits from selected dates intact, so you can step back and compare coverage of such events as 9/11 and the London bombings, the 2004 US presidential campaign, and - for Red Sox fans - the 2004 World Series.
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