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CNN's web site is using a great device called "story highlights" to make life easier for readers.

For each story, at the top of the page, is a bulleted list of the main points of the story. Look at the way that CNN handled the Michael Vick story .

At least one blogger suggests that printed newspapers might want to try the same sort of device.

Many newspapers offer some sort of daily digest of the news, but it's normally in paragraph form and run on a separate page, apart from the story itself. The CNN example is a nice variation on this theme.

Welcome

What's going to happen to traditional ink-on-paper newspapers in the growing move to the Web? My own viewpoint is that they'll survive that way, but take on a more Folio-like appearance, leaving the breaking news to their web versions.

At the same time, there's a permanence in the printed word that people naturally respond to. When someone gets married or someone dies, when something significant happens, when something touches your heart, you want to clip out that piece and save it.

I suppose you could do the same thing by printing out the obit or the touching story, but somehow it's not the same.

Here's a piece in Slate magazine that makes much the same point.