Inquirer launching interactive presentation to commemorate 180th anniversary Sunday

The Inquirer will unveil a special interactive presentation Sunday commemorating its 180th anniversary.

In case anyone forgot why newspapers matter, the Philadelphia Inquirer will give the public a subtle reminder this weekend.

Philadelphia’s paper of record will launch a special multimedia presentation online Sunday to commemorate its 180th anniversary, which Technically Philly was given a sneak preview of yesterday, and which we promised to share yesterday.

According to Inquirer Executive Online Editor Chris Krewson, a team has been working on the project for several months.

“Credit goes to Frank Wiese, our Online Projects Editor, and Cynthia Greer, an artist in our graphics department,” Krewson said in an e-mail statement.

“Frank and Cynthia had collaborated before on the Please Touch Museum interactive book, which won a national Headliners Award for Journalistic Innovation,” he said.

Sure, call us media geeks�But after digging into the special presentation, we’re impressed. Follow the jump for more details of the special presentation, or see it on Philly.com.
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Philadelphia Inquirer will launch a paid-content model for Web

5/31/09 – 10:38 a.m.: Updated.

The Philadelphia Inquirer will launch a paid-content model on its Web site before the end of the year, according to a commemorative online package that will appear Sunday.

Philadelphia’s paper of record will debut the special multimedia presentation on Philly.com to commemorate its 180th anniversary, which Technically Philly was given a preview of today.

See our sneak peek at the project here.

The presentation includes a news story attributing the mention of paid content to Brian Tierney, Philadelphia Media Holdings Publisher and Chief Executive. Further details about the plans were not provided.

Inquirer Executive Online Editor Chris Krewson could not confirm the time line or the decision, but said that Tierney has spoken publicly about the possibility.

“In the past three months it’s been pretty clear from Brian’s statements that there will be a move to paid content on the Internet,” Krewson said in a telephone interview with Technically Philly.

“It would not surprise me at all to see us do something with paid content by the end of the year.”
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Can the Philadelphia general interest newspaper thrive with technology?

The news flew through Twitter like the California fire storm that helped bring the micro-blogging utility to mainstream consumption.

Before a newsroom meeting broke, Pulitzer-Prize winning phtographer Jim MacMillan tweeted that the Daily News was being folded into its older, more mature, less fun sister publication, the Philadelphia Inquirer. The message from MacMillan, formerly of the Daily News, was quickly clarified by Philly.com Editor Wendy Warren, a Daily News alumnae herself. Before then though, Inquirer online editor Chris Krewson had cleared the message for anyone who cared.

The Philadelphia Daily News will at the end of March be considered an edition of the Inquirer, though their staffs and competition will remain the same, for now.

Of course, what’s interesting is that the unsettling, if not undercutting, news of the People Paper first came to the masses via the latest fashionable social media, just the type of tool that newspaper executives seem to suggest could save the general interest urban daily. Well, that or kill it.

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