Print is valuable when it is the "Voice of God"

I found a very good piece on twitter this morning, so I tweeted.

ToughLoveforXBrilliant explanation of the difference btwn Print v Online. Batch v real time. There is a right time for each .http://tinyurl.com/ku88a6

The blog is by Cody Brown:

Cody Brown lives in Brooklyn. Goes to school at NYU. He is the founder of the daily campus news blog NYU Local, the publisher of The Tisch Film Review, on the board of CoPress, and currently interning at Outside.in.

Follow him on Twitter. Facebook Friend Him. Smack him with a LinkedIn. Email him. Or just reach into his left pocket and vibrate. All messages go to the same place.

Here are some snippets from the post in question.

print works best in batch and online works best in real time.
. . .
How should a great paper develop its brand?
As the voice of god. Most of the biggest city newspapers took The Times’s lead in the 1890’s and have since spent a century developing their brand as public trusts that get it right the first time, all the time. When two city newspapers are in competition with one another, it is a war of access and infallibility
. . .
How should a print newspaper publish information about a developing story?
Cautiously. It should triple check it’s information and call every source involved in the story to give them an opportunity to comment. The consequences are great when Newspapers publish something wrong, it doesn’t take more than a few careless edits for a newspaper brand to fall to pieces.
. . .
How should it output its work?
Into tight neatly written comprehensive articles that it can then sell as part of a wire service. Articles meant to exist as a ‘first draft of history.’

Who should edit and produce a print newspaper?
Professionals. It’s expensive. A finite number of pages means a constant question: what is newsworthy to the most number of people?

"Serious" Print implies credibility.
That doesn't mean that everything is print is true. But it should mean that someone purports that it is as true as it can be. That's what Cody is pointing to when he says that a Print Newspaper is meant to speak with the "Voice of God."

When a high school student "writes" on the web or with SMS on a phone that's just coding a conversation into letterforms. Same thing on twitter. That's why it's easy and fun.

Once those words are captured in Print they can be shared with parents and communities of interest. When words are captured in Print they imply more than a conversation between people. They represent as the product of reflection. Words-in-print are not necessarily true, but the very media implies focus and consideration. Focus and consideration is how a kid practices thinking and integrates new learnings.

A blog lives somewhere in between.