Wikinews talk:Print edition/Archive 1

Design
I too have been thinking the print edition should be a wiki page. The user would use the 'printable version' feature of the toolbox to simpilify the format for printing. Some wiki systems even offer a 'PDF' generator link. I think this means the print edition would in fact become a summary or 'daily report'; as printing would be secondary function. This daily report could also be the basis of the audio and future video editions. The audio edition could be 'text to speech' generated. There are some nice, clear, human like 'text to speech' voices now. As a wiki page the 'Daily Report' could be edited by all in the wiki spirit, have a history of changes, and once saved generate a new PDF and 'text to speech' audio files. All editions should have RSS feeds. Some form of CSS could detail the voice, and background music for the audio edition. Maybe video edition has a 'text to speech' reporter talking over related video clips, or pictures.

--Frank 25-July-05

I like the design of the Main Page much better than the print edition. One reason is that the print edition doesn't have article-related pictures like the Main Page has. --Munchkinguy 23:15, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC)


 * Main Page is better for electronic version, because it has links to the related stories. Print edition is better to read offline - some people don't like to read from the screen in case to "save their eyes"... We surely need print version... --Yuriybrisk 15:11, 12 September 2006 (UTC)


 * It normally does have article-related pictures,however I am on vacation this week, so I am on dial up. Once I get back (next Friday) it will resume having pictures again. On the overall look, I am working on it and have a major redesign planed. --Cspurrier 02:31, 17 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Yay! Thank you! --Munchkinguy 04:38, 19 Jun 2005 (UTC)

I'm not sure if it's possible or feasable, but it would be so much better if the print edition was dynamically created. Maybe even if it wasn't PDF. I just think it would be better and more wiki-like. Maybe a template where we just kinda "dropped" in the stories, using templates? Just an idea... idk if it could work.


 * Does the font have to be Times New Roman? It's such an ugly font, and more difficult to read than some others, like Ariel.  --Laura Scudder | Talk 4 July 2005 16:18 (UTC)
 * This is where I make the obligatory comment on how TNR as most people know it is a bastardized version to fit Linotype's PS version's metrics and is not the "real deal'' Times New Roman. That aside, the faces used would need to be "free" (Debian-sense) (assuming the collaborative element of the project includes access to the font files) so we would be looking at the various Bitstream/URW/whatever fonts. Eater 05:30, 4 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Continuing along that, in light of the fact that readers would be dealing with large amounts of small text in a small space (on what I assume to be a A4 or A3-sized paper), I'd be looking at the URW Times clone or Bitstream Vera Sans Serif---the latter is my preference. Of course, with scripting, if the generation engine was based on Xetex then the user could just upload their own fonts...  Eater 05:53, 4 January 2008 (UTC)
 * I have uploaded a PDF ([[Image:Eater-Test-4-Jan-08.pdf]]) with Bitstream Vera Sans, Times NR, Nimbus No. 9. Eater 08:04, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

i'd be willing to take a look at dynamic (or semi-dynamic) generation based on a set of scripts, and piped through latex. though only if there's any demand for that. apart from the possible aesthetic improvements that could result, i'm interested in the idea that people could print their own personally tailored newspaper (pdf) each morning, to read on the way to work.


 * I don't know much about the scripting, but I can set up a sample pdf with latex source code for anyone who's interested. Laura Scudder | Talk 18:19, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

A clue to simplify the print edition preparing process
6. When the time will come one can take all that stuff and quickly prepare the final version. Then the document may be empted or deleted (first is more prefferable. not to replace the shared document url on this page). Isn't that a beautiful idea to make the work of the designer more simple? --Yuriybrisk 15:11, 12 September 2006 (UTC)
 * 1. Logging into Google Writely (local wiki is ok, too, but I think it's the nicer way);
 * 2. Creating an empty document;
 * 3. Saving it in .odt format
 * 4. Adding basic information (like possible category headings)
 * 5. Sharing it so that every user (not only Wikinews registered) could add articles, including the one that is self-made. An idea is that it's much easier to format one article into print version than many articles at one time (though the LaTeX script is surely good enough).

Comments
moved from the page June 30 to here

That's superb. Dan100 (Talk) 11:56, 1 May 2005 (UTC)

I like the samples very much, and I plan to distribute them widely. My only observation is that there isn't any information about Wikinews itself. Most importantly, there is no URL to point people to the origin of the news that they are reading. Good work, though. - Borofkin 04:13, 12 May 2005 (UTC)


 * I have added "If you would like to write, publish or edit articles, visit www.wikinews.org" to the footer, If anyone can think of something better to say let me know. --Cspurrier 01:54, 14 May 2005 (UTC)


 * I just ran off a PDF copy on my printer. It all worked beautifully. Really out-of-the-box thinking and outstanding idea Cspurrier. Many like their news in their hands and not on a monitor. -Edbrown05 04:21, 12 May 2005 (UTC)


 * I think this should be pushed --> "Printer friendly version" Somewhere on the front page. -Edbrown05 04:29, 12 May 2005 (UTC)
 * Redge has added it to his new Layout (in sandbox 2).--Cspurrier 01:54, 14 May 2005 (UTC)


 * Only minor problem is that all the categories get carried across with the stories too, so the print edition shows up in all the DPLs! Don't know how to fix that, but it doesn't matter hugely. Dan100 (Talk) 08:20, 12 May 2005 (UTC)
 * This is some what fixed by me nowiking the page when I am done generating it . --Cspurrier 01:54, 14 May 2005 (UTC)
 * We need to advertise this somewhere and get people to print it off and distribute it. NGerda 23:52, 13 May 2005 (UTC)

It looks good, and I have just one feedback so far. I haven't printed it because my printer is not working, but I thought the Weather image was too small to read. I would suggest blowing up the weather image to 2 columns. Also weather typically goes on a back page not the front page, so I would move it to the very end of the paper, say, the bottom of the right two columns below the Wikinews sidebar. You may also want to put a small tagline below the weather report, explaining it: "Weather map depicts world temperatures in degrees Centigrade." But those are just suggestions, of course. DouglasGreen 12:50, 24 May 2005 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your input, at the moment the weather image is there mostly to let people know that there is in fact weather on Wikinews. I like your idea on the location of the larger map and will try it with the next edition.--Cspurrier 12:55, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

Looks very cool. the only thing that looked slightly strange was the way the wikinews logo was kind of alone. I'ts kind of hard to explain, but i'll try to show what i mean in ascii art (which i'm not good at)

______________     |   /              \   |    |  | wikinews logo  |  |               |  \_______________/  |         _______________________________________________________________________________________     free          The free content news source that you can write. Date

========================================================================= Compared to adding previews to that line, or something to fill up space

______________   __________________    ___________________________________    |   /              \   |French vote no   |  |Curruption endangers Brazilian Gov.| | | wikinews logo  |  ||Ballot box pict||  | pict from brazil article          | |  \_______________/  ||_______________||  |___________________________________|      _______________________________________________________________________________________     free          The free content news source that you can write. Date

It could also give reader's an idea of what is on the pages to follow. Anyhow The print edition looks extremly good =>. Bawolff 01:11, 31 May 2005 (UTC)

Why did weather dissappear???--207.200.116.69 17:09, 18 Jun 2005 (UTC)
 * It is because I am on dial up for this week, so I have switched to a low image format. Next Friday I get back on to DSL and will resume the normal full version with weather --Cspurrier 18:17, 18 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Why is the weather in *C, it should be in both *F and *C --67.149.77.77 22:16, 19 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Hong Kong "freed from Communism, finally???"
In today's print edition, in the section where it said "Today in History", an editor made an erroneous mistake and said that today (in 1997; July 1st), The Communist China ceded Hong Kong to Great Britain, which should have been "regained control". Mind you, this is not funny for most Hong Kongers nowadays who lives under constant Communist Chinese oppression. We take this matter seriously. (69.140.103.233 1 July 2005 19:57 (UTC))
 * This issue has been addressed and a new version of the print edition will be posted soon. --Chiacomo (talk) 1 July 2005 22:00 (UTC)
 * Thanks Chiacomo for fixing it, the "Today in History" comes from the Wikipedia project. --Cspurrier 1 July 2005 23:20 (UTC)
 * I'll confess that I didn't fix it -- I just uploaded it. --Chiacomo (talk) 1 July 2005 23:22 (UTC)

Wikinews extras
I thought those looked very professional. I think that the regular wikinews should look like that, more like a real newspaper. I think the print edition right now looks... not very good.


 * I know what you mean, but Wikinews Print is great for a one man job. The font could do with a change from Times New Roman, and it would be great if Cspurrier could put the Wikinews Print Logo (http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Image:Wikinews_Print_edition.png) on the top of Page 1, rather than just the small wikinews logo. I think that would look pretty good. But still, wikinews print is great considoring that Cspurrier manages to make one every day, on his own. Saxsux 19:36, 15 July 2005 (UTC)
 * The extras were created by a different user and e-mailed to me. The method he uses is not currently practical for the creation of the daily edition. I agree the daily edition needs some work :), I am currently working on creating a new template for it. The new logo was created for this and will be included in it. Any suggestions especially on font would be greatly appreciated. --Cspurrier 19:48, 15 July 2005 (UTC)
 * Brilliant! To be honest, I think something like tahoma or arial would be okay, I just can't stand Times New Roman. Some information about Wikinews Extra on the print page would be useful too, explaining what it is etc, the page seems centred on the standard print edition with pratically no mention of Extra. Saxsux 16:03, 17 July 2005 (UTC)
 * It's been a while. Any news on incorporating the new logo? I'm glad the font has been changed, but still no logo! Saxsux 20:12, 3 December 2005 (UTC)
 * In the next day or so the new layout should be done --Cspurrier 20:22, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

New Layout
I agree with the new layout thing, but what work has been done on it? Need any help? -Telecron 21:32:27, 2005-08-28 (UTC)
 * Yes please!! I have gotten litle done witht he redesign. It must be created with an open source program that can run under Linux. I prefer OpenOffice since that is what I am most used to and is the quickest for me to create that daily edition with. --Cspurrier 21:54, 28 August 2005 (UTC)
 * I did a quick thing... but not a redesign... it's there under the "More About the Print edition" section... -Telecron 01:32:46, 2005-08-30 (UTC)
 * I noticed the change in the August 30 edition with Verdana... On the PDF it is barely legible. Maybe a more PDF friendly font would be good? -Telecron 13:58:02, 2005-08-30 (UTC)
 * This isn't really any help to you probably, as I did it in Adobe InDesign, but I was bored tonight and wondered what Wikinews would look like in an old newspaper, New York Times style. So I made this for fun:  PDF --LoganCale 05:52, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

Spanish print edition
Hi. I'd like to know what do you think about the Spanish-language Wikinews print edition. I started it today, and, by now, it's gonna be weekly. Thanks. --Julián Ortega 02:06, 29 July 2005 (UTC)

Good, but you need to unlink the links, that looks kind of funky. --67.149.77.77 14:32, 29 July 2005 (UTC)


 * Hi, hope you check this week's Spanish-language Wikinews print edition. Cheers! --Julián Ortega 01:03, 5 August 2005 (UTC)


 * Any chance of getting an English version to match this? The Spanish one really looks sensational, and while this is certainly useful, it still looks a little too much like a straight Word document. Ambi 14:24, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

A crossword or something.
I'm thinking that we should add a crossword to the print edition since we have one on Wikinews now, you know? I mean I know lots of people who do the crossword daily, so this would save them time by incorporating it with the paper instead of having to go to the crossword page and print it out and then go and print out the paper. -Martinman11 20:35, 19 August 2005 (UTC)


 * I think so too. There's plenty of space on the back page, and I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to slap a crossword on there. Saxsux 20:10, 3 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Find one with a free license and I will be glad to add it --Cspurrier 20:13, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

Crosswords/Current. (hasn't been updated recently, and supposably is only a new one every week, but the last one was september.). Bawolff ☺☻ 08:33, 10 December 2005 (UTC)

Text Justification
The currently used method of alignment of text is "Align Left". If you look at any newspaper, they use "Justification" to print articles. This makes for easier reading and a better-looking paper overall. I hope this can be used in future prints. --Borisborf 04:46, 2 September 2005 (UTC)


 * This would definitely improve how professional the print edition looks. Laura Scudder | Talk 16:27, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

RSS/Atom
Have you ever considered making a media RSS feed of the print edition. I think it looks great. If a RSS feed was created, then you could automaticaly download it with iTunes 4.9 or higher or other feed aggregators that support PDFs. --Nathan8225 21:21, 25 September 2005 (UTC)

Gnome PDF Viewer font problems
Thanks for providing this great service. I could not initially see the text in the Nov. 4 edition of Gpdf 0.132 on Slackware Linux 10.1. I saw squares of varying sizes, some with letters sticking out of them. The images showed up ok. Then I opened a different newsletter in Gpdf; same issue; then in Kpdf 0.3.2; then everything was fixed, even the Nov. 4 edition in Gpdf worked now. Does this indicate a problem with the PDFs, or with my system? --Unforgettableid | Talk to me 09:45, 4 November 2005 (UTC)

Upload to commons
Maybe these should be uploaded to common, as they're under a free license and thats what the spanish wikinews does. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikinews_print_edition_-_Spanish Bawolff ☺☻ 08:35, 10 December 2005 (UTC)
 * The problem is we use fair use images in the print edition, so it technically as a whole it is non free like Wikinews --Cspurrier 15:32, 10 December 2005 (UTC)
 * I see. Bawolff ☺☻[[image:smile.png]] 07:37, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

Add info
As the prnt edition is created using the previous days news, maybe on the backpage of the print edition, (where about wikinews print edition is) we add a small part saying soming like "The Wikinews Print Edition is created using the previous days news plus the current leads" I say this because, yesterday, a friend of mine was reading it, and asked me why, the news artcles were a day late. Brian New Zealand 05:46, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

Padding on images
Well you probaly call it something else on paper, but the images need a little bit of padding (if it were in html I'd give it between 0.2-0.5 em's) Right now it the text is too close to the image. Other then that Great Work, keep it up. Bawolff ☺☻ 04:31, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

legal?
sorry to bring this up, but is it legal to distribute wikinews articles in print just with the attribution "created by wikinewsies"? Assume that I write an article at wikinews, I release it under the GFDL CC 2.5, which allows free reproduction and modification, provided that I am named as the original author. Now this is the case online, where my username will be listed in the page history, but even if my article is distributed verbatim in print, all the attribution I get is as "a wikinewsie", which is hardly what I bargained for. 85.1.220.102 17:22, 26 April 2006 (UTC)
 * I just noted the will be attributed to "Wikinews" clause on the edit page. Fair enough then, it is legal, but posting here really means giving your text to the hive. 85.1.220.102 17:26, 26 April 2006 (UTC)


 * That's what a wiki is all about! It's a good thing - we're trying to contribute to greater world knowledge. Check out www.wikipedia.org if you haven't seen that. It's our "mother" project. Lyellin 17:47, 26 April 2006 (UTC)
 * by the way, taswhy we choose cc-by over gfdl. Bawolff ☺☻[[image:smile.png]] 00:30, 27 April 2006 (UTC)

Distribution
I like the wikinews print edition, when i start college in the fall I am definatley going to have to print off several copies each night to bring to the college to be distributed.--Ryan524 02:59, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

I made a minnor decorating change
I made a minnor decorating change, hope you don't mind. If you really hate the template, feel free to delete/rv. Bawolff ☺☻ 05:31, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

Also look at Template talk:MainPageMediaMenu
Many users make comments there relsting to the print eddition. Bawolff ☺☻ 02:41, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

Weekly
I don't know if this has been discussed before, but it seems to me that the print edition lacks weight. I think a lot more readers could be drawn to it if it had more to it than just 3 or 4 pages. How about making a weekly edition in addition to the daily one? It would allow for a lot more content to be included, seven days worth instead of one. I could see it being more convenient in a lot of situations than the regular small daily edition. Bengl 17:54, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

I agree, seeing that the way it is done now, all seven days can just be posted at once. Weekly would give more margin of error for consistency. Aritmomaniac - --63.226.230.58 21:47, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

Inconsistency
Sorry to bring this up, because I know it is an all-volunteer thing, but the inconsistency of the print edition makes me not even want to bother with it. I use a Sony Reader, and would like to use it to read the newspaper every morning, and wikinews seems to be the only source of a daily PDF newspaper. However, it is very rarely updated (hardly daily as advertised). I think the print edition will continue to lose subscribers if they see that all they can get from it is old news. Is the inconsistency just because of time restraints on the few people who provide it, or because of the holidays, or am I missing something?

Thanks,

-Josh

RSS
What's happened to the RSS, last update was November 20, 2006 Brian | (Talk) | New Zealand Portal 21:41, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Wrong order in lists
The lists of the recent PDF and .sxw versions of the Print edition seem to put the second-newest edition at the top and the newest beneath, and give them both the same date (in the list, not the filename). Tamino 22:39, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

New OpenOffice file format
Since OpenOffice 2.2 comes with a new file format (odt instead of sxw for text files), how about saving it in the new format in order to stay up to date. Most OpenOffice.org will have updated to 2.2 by now since it is so much better than the old one. 13:45, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Would people with older versions of OpenOffice.org not be able to open the file then? —Zachary talk 13:49, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
 * No, sxw is still supported in release 2.2 - that's how I read it. 172.158.209.39 17:57, 9 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Odt is open document format. sxw star word format. Both can be fairly widely read. I don't think uploads for odt are curently accepted. I think this has been asked before. Bawolff ☺☻ 23:09, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

PDF does not work fo me
I am using Windows XP, and Acrobat Reader 7.0 as well as 6 and 5 and Acrobat Professional and Acrobat Standard, and have had no luck in getting the PDF files to open. I even tried Photoshop, to no avail. The message is get is "could not open ... because it is either not a supported file type or because the file has been damaged ..." I do fair amount of work with PDFs and have not run into trouble as consistently as I have here. If it's possible I'm doing something wrong, maybe someone can help me out. Wisekwai 21:33, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

I cannot even download the PDF! I don't know what to do User:Kushal_one -69.150.163.1 00:36, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

Weather maps
I remember there used to be a weather map towards the end of the Print Edition, but for some reason the map stopped being updated. As it's now being updated again, could we have it in the print edition again? --Saxsux 21:57, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Typesetting
Shouldn't these things be set in a typesetter like Latex or Framemaker? It would allow individual articles to be written in plain text files (with references to external files etc) with the compiler doing the actual work of creating the PDF. It would allow individual articles to be added/removed at will...

As far as Latex goes, it would not involve anything more than fancyhdr/multicols/geometry, and could be quite a simple job, as long as everyone agreed to what exactly it should look like... everntually it could me moved to the server side, as the input is plain text anyway, so Latex would just be parsing the wikicode and converting it to PDF.

202.89.153.149 09:18, 25 December 2007 (UTC)
 * This is a question that had come to me as well. Unfortunately, I'm neither as savvy in Latex as you, nor do I know the precise process of how the print edition is put together at the moment. But I would have assumed that the way its put together at the moment could more or less be automated (which of course would make things easier for all). Regards 125.162.166.218 09:18, 29 December 2007 (UTC)

rss/podcast broken
The rss / podcast is broken. The feed at http://webpages.charter.net/mrmiscellanious/wnpe/ is malformed (Link url's have  arround them, which doesn't work very well when in an attribute, as it is (i belive) illegal to have tags in an attribute, so that causes stuff to not work. In addition, there is a server configuration issue on http://mrmwikinews.awardspace.com/xml-pe.php which prevents it from accesing the feed I first mentioned, which bubbles up to feedburner feed which gets it from http://mrmwikinews.awardspace.com/xml-pe.php . I've sent an email to MrM (He maintains it, or at least he did before he left. I'm unsure if he still maintains is, but I don't know who else i could contact). Hopefully it will be fixed soon. Bawolff ☺☻ 13:57, 6 January 2008 (UTC)
 * It has been broken for a while. As soon as I have my RSS thing running on the server (soon I hope) it will take over. --Cspurrier 22:08, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

Intermittent updates
Hi, I have noticed that updates have been intermittent for a while, and was wondering if anyone knew why this was, and when things will be back to normal. I would be happy to help with the project if any help is needed. --<font color="#115566">GW_Simulations<font color="#000000">User Page 09:58, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

Font
I think a font with serifs would look cleaner and more professional on print. Bryan 83.81.5.126 10:16, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

US Bias
I read the name of one of the articles in the Wikinews published March 27: "Former first lady Nancy Reagan endorses McCain". Now, if this is supposed to be an international news paper (which it is?), shouldn't anyone be able to quickly understand what the article is about? I highly doubt that Nancy Reagan is well known outside of the US. The articles should be much more informative and not take things for granted. I don't even think the article is especially noteworthy outside of the us, but since there's not much material, I can accept that it's still in the paper. 81.233.28.87 01:46, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

Distribute Wikinews Print Edition pdf via Mailing List
I have an idea, setup a mailing list that anyone can join, and each day when the new print edition comes out send out a copy of the pdf on the mailing list. It would be nice to wake up in the morning to an inbox with a pdf of the news.--Ryan524 - (talk) 03:58, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
 * That is a nice idea. Cirt - (talk) 04:00, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
 * Glad you like the idea, my only question is with something like this would the foundation want the mailing list managed on their servers or could I just setup an offsite mailing list?--Ryan524 - (talk) 04:14, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
 * You could actually go places with just the base concept of a mailing list, like breaking news mailings, and why end at email, why not include txt messages with links to breaking news stories for your web-enabled cell phone?--Ryan524 - (talk) 04:22, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

Original reporting/Wikinews exclusive?
Here's an idea. When an original reporting makes the print edition, maybe it can be made out to be a Wikinews exclusive? For the non-users of the website edition might see that we are more then just reporting from what some perceive as old news. Kingjeff (talk) 20:36, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Wikicode to Latex converter exists now
See http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/User:Derbeth/javaLatex .118.90.88.214 10:06, 17 November 2008 (UTC)

Status update
I had a few things come up unexpectedly, the print edition should resume by the 25th's edition.--Cspurrier (talk) 01:17, 24 November 2008 (UTC)

SXW Format
I am unable to upload the SXW format of the print edition as it is not allowed by the server :( - Cartman02au <SMALL>(Talk)(AU Portal)</SMALL> 01:09, 28 November 2008 (UTC)
 * I guess thats probably a good thing to stop hidden content [per commons:Commons:File_types], although then again I was under the impression that you could hide random stuff in png and some other formats too. I don't think too many people actually used sxw anyways. Bawolff ☺☻ 23:40, 28 November 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia?
Why does the second column of the first page start "Wikipedia Current Events" - shouldn't it be Wikinews? And out of interest, where do the phone lines go? - tholly  --Talk-- 18:15, 29 November 2008 (UTC)
 * We also add some content from other projects (like wikipedia current events) but most of it is wikinews. The phonelines used to go to an answering machine, and then be emailed to the wikinews-hotline-l mailing list (see Hotline), but they have been discontinued and should not be listed. Bawolff ☺☻ 21:21, 29 November 2008 (UTC)
 * As the news in Wikipedia Current Events section usually comes from Wikinews, wouldn't just "Current Events" do? Thanks - tholly  --Talk-- 09:09, 30 November 2008 (UTC)
 * No it doesn't; Wikipedia Current Events is very different to Wikinews in what it covers and such. Anonymous101talk 09:11, 30 November 2008 (UTC)
 * Oh, I get it - it comes from their Main Page current events section? I understand it now, thanks - tholly  --Talk-- 16:48, 30 November 2008 (UTC)