A Newspaper of Images
While looking at the launch of Paper I was struck by the lack of words. The apps name, presumably an homage, suggests a certain sense of wordiness but instead everything is focused on images.
Paper is certainly picking up on trends built by popular apps like Flipboard, and it’s entirely possible that what people want is an even more visual experience, but you loose something when you depend so largely on images. The average blog post is going to look horrible next to the glossy layouts. Proabably adding one more nail the lone blogger coffin.
Look I don’t fear for the literacy of our future selves or anything like that, but if you are looking for a better news reading app this probably won’t be it. Even if it’s is a huge success, there will still need to be a place for words.