For decades, I've watched newspaper industry thinktanks - the too few that exist - try to invent the next medium for news. This usually takes the mythical form of e-paper, thin as a sheet and just as portable, able to display newspapers like newspapers, very Harry Potter. I have also seen too many newspapers and magazines attempting to use painful PDF technology to display their publications on screens exactly as they appear on paper. Why? Ego, I think, and comfort and fear of change. The New York Times recently did a deal with Microsoft to use its new reader, which looks as attractive, if grey, as the Times itself and enables familiar activities like turning pages, but which loses some of the rich linking and interactivity of the web.I think that's all driving the wrong way: backwards. These are attempts to mould technology to old media. What we should be doing instead, of course, is moulding media to new technology. We should be asking what new we can do on this new iPhone.