Newspapers, wake up and smell the UI.

The change in for­tunes of the news­pa­per busi­ness has been quite stunning.

“In the first half of 2009, the news­pa­pers’ print and online ad rev­enues have totaled about $13.4 bil­lion — down about 29% from $18.8 bil­lion in the first half of 2008, and 43% from their peak of $23.5 bil­lion in the first half of 2006” (Mediapost.com, 9/18/2009.)

You’d think in this kind of envi­ron­ment news­pa­pers would be scram­bling to do some­thing dif­fer­ent to reverse the trend. While I endorse the plan of some paper groups to charge for online con­tent, most notably The New York Times, pay­ing for con­tent is always a bal­anc­ing act between what I get and what I pay. And on that basis I find all online news­pa­pers I encounter to be incred­i­bly lazy.

The web is bril­liant at allow­ing for indi­vid­ual per­son­al­iza­tion of con­tent, and yet I see none of that occur­ring with online news­pa­pers. With lim­ited excep­tions, the home­page of The New York Times I see each day looks like the home­page that mil­lions of other peo­ple see.

When I can cus­tomize my Yahoo!, Google or social media pages, why can’t I do the same for news­pa­pers? Espe­cially when it could hugely enhance the experience.

For me the most impor­tant sec­tions are Busi­ness and Sports. So allow me to put those at the top of the home page. I don’t always get to read the Din­ing sec­tion when it comes out on Wednes­day, so let me keep that con­tent live until I have the chance to read it—then have newer con­tent fill its place. There are cer­tain jour­nal­ists I seek out like David Pogue; again let me dic­tate that their con­tent gets pushed above the fold on the home page until I’ve had a chance to read it.

No two peo­ple read the printed news­pa­per the same way; why force peo­ple to read an online ver­sion the same way? It’s time for online news­pa­pers to deliver far more indi­vid­ual and reward­ing user expe­ri­ences.