Got White Space?

Since President Obama announced the details of his National Broadband Plan, online news editors have been breaking out in hives.

The announcement came last spring: National Broadband

Now that it is being implemented, editors are frantically asking "What will we do with the white space?"

“White space” is a term used by many national print newspapers and magazines that need some kind of fill (article) to complete the newspaper’s content. When they have too much white space, they will resort to printing a lame story like “Stray Politicians Checking Into Cheap Motels Are Warned by Homeland Security Not to Sign-in as Lars Vilks” or "What Did Horace J. Digby Jr. Mean When he Said 'You only need one real stroke of genius to make it through life . . . Gee I hope that wasn't mine!" just to fill the remainder or white space.

If its just a small amount of white space needed, you will notice that the text in the newspaper or magazine is a tad larger than usual or column lines are a bit shorter at the end of each page.

You will also see newsletters filling white space with blurbs from Canadians bragging about their Olympic prowess.

With broadband technology, the white space can now refer to either seconds of broadcast time or "fills" for text content. You will be glad to know that The Onion has found an ingenious solution for filling broadcast time, so we can all keep up with current events 24x7:

Breaking News: Some Bullshit Happening Somewhere