Writing for print and writing for the web is two totally different things. Most of the time it should depend on the audience, layout, colour and many more (About.com 2009).
For printed materials, the content ‘controls’ the reader because the style of reading is linear where text goes up and down, left to right. While for the web, the users read the content faster and can even modify the content, while the style of reading is non-linear because they can read any direction to skim through the text faster (Redshaw 2003).
The above is a sample of print, where the words are in linear models, and audiences do not normally skim through the text.
The above would be a sample of a design for a blog, where the information is more interactive and easier to read, this is because normal readers of the web would not read texts that are too long from the screen, so, in order to get their attention, incorporating pictures with descriptions can help get the readers’ attention and keep it.
On top of that, having good writing skills and carefully organising the information of the blog can also boost the blog’s appeal because if it makes sense, people will read it! (Nielson 1997).
References:
About.com 2009, Design for Print Vs. the Web, online, retrieved 17th November 2009, from http://graphicdesign.about.com/od/printvsweb/a/print_vs_web.htm.
Nielson, J. 1997, Concise, Scannable, and Objective: How to Write for the Web, online, retrieved 17th November 2009, from http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/writing.html.
Redshaw, K. 2003, Web Writing Vs. Print Writing, online, retrieved 17th November 2009. from http://www.kerryr.net/webwriting/guide_web-vs-print.htm.
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