New times for The Baltic Times?

Dear TBT,

We live in a culture of the image. Right now, we live in a culture of social networks (Facebook, Linkedin, Gmail  are just a few of many similar initiatives). We can be critics when we chat with someone in another part of the world, but maybe ignore completely the person who is having a coffee next to us in a bar. Fast, simple and short: these characteristics seem the main way of current communication, and this is well-known, everywhere, throughout the worldwide media.

The Internet offers us a ‘parallel life,’ something new and surprising. Newspaper readers are decreasing, while electronic media users are the future. But this doesn’t mean that the importance of the paper is lost. I think that the newspaper (in its traditional meaning, on paper) could offer to the readers a space for analysis. I think that this is a good target for leaders like The Baltic Times.

But, of course, this has to be done with appropriate measure. Sometimes this analysis results in quite difficult reading in long stories, staying interested from the beginning to the end. The reader, when he’s through racking his brain, just doesn’t finish the story, and this is a pity. To have a simple headline about politics or the economy on Twitter today seems to be enough, but is there not something to be filled in, in the middle?

The electronic version of TBT is fine in this respect, but it is not so interactive. Over all, what about introducing a better design with the paper version, more pictures and some compartmentalization?

Someone needs to introduce some changes. Is there a push for this? Professionals and enough money for that? What is being done to stay ahead of the times?

Jeffrey Burford,
Riga