Online newspaper

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Modern printed newspapers all over the world are developing and running web newspapers. Going online created more opportunities for newspapers for instance, it allows newspapers to effectively compete with broadcast journalism in presenting breaking news online in a more timely manner than printing allows. The credibility and strong brand recognition of well-established newspapers, and the close relationships they have with advertisers (particularly in the case of local newspapers), are also seen by many in the newspaper industry as strengthening their chances of survival.[1] The movement away from the printing process can also help decrease costs.

Not only do they allow for instant updating of news stories in text but alowing equal oppertunities for access for disabled groups as well as adding more interesting features for the viewers to use leading to more interest and more advert opportunities.[2] As distinctions between modes of communication become blurred, and as mass communication transforms itself every day with innovation, anyone who has a cellphone on a hike in the woods may now be in instant contact with news and events worldwide.

Web/online newspapers are not precisely like blogs or forum sites; however, it is not unusual for newspaper reporters and editors to maintain blogs, or for newspapers to add forums to their websites, for easy response from readers. Online newspapers must abide by the same legalities as do their sister publications. Professional journalists have some advantages, as editors are normally aware of the potential for legal problems.[3] The big difference over blog and forum sites as to online newspaper and news sites is that blog and forum sites are not media based websites. As bloggers and independent citizen-journalists become more prevalent on the web, the potential for an explosion in lawsuits looms as they are not regulated in the same way as it is down to the public and not proffessional reporters to post stories in most cases. Blog sites can contain missleading information that could be seen as libel, questions regarding negligence or actual malice, or suits regarding invasion of privacy torts (such as appropriation, intrusion, private facts and false light). This problem was brought up in In November 2006 the issue about blog sites and newspaper sites when it hit national headlines in the UK. The Press Complaints Commission director Tim Toulmin told a London conference on race at the end off 2006:- "We're not in favour of regulating the internet. You can't regulate it. But unless there is a voluntary code there are no forms of redress. The flow of information should not be regulated by the government."[4] In fact the PCC did cover online newspapers, but not blog and forum news sites.[5] Soft-copy newspapers are much like hard-copy newspapers and have the same legal boundaries, such as laws regarding libel, privacy and copyright,[6] also apply to online publications in most countries, like in the UK. Also in the UK the data protection act also applies to online newspapers and news pages.[7] As well as the PCC rules in the UK. But the distinction was not very clear to the public in the UK as to what was a blog or forum site and what was an online newspapers. In 2007 a rulling was passsed in 2007 to formaly regulate UK based online newspapers, news audio and news video websites covering the responsibilities expected of them and to clear up who is and who are not online publications in the UK.[8]

News reporters in progressive newsrooms throughout the country are being taught to shoot video[9] and to write in the succinct manner necessary for the Internet news pages. Many are learning how to implement blogs and the rulling by the UK's PCC should help this development of the internet. Journalism students in schools around the world are being taught about the "convergence" of all media and the need to have knowledge and skills involving print, broadcast and web.[10]

Responses to this sea-change in the competitive environment have varied. Some newspapers have attempted to integrate the internet into every aspect of their operations, for example with reporters writing stories for both print and online, and classified advertisements appearing in both media; others operate websites that are more distinct from the printed newspaper. Many in both camps believe that newspapers will increasingly leave breaking news to online and broadcast media, with print publications focused on comment and analysis.

The moderator of television’s longest-running program began his career in news delivering armfuls of newspapers in Buffalo, N.Y. Decades have passed, but Tim Russert of NBC's Meet the Press said during a press conference at Mount Union College that he can't imagine doing his job without print news. “I am very reliant on newspapers. I read them all, six or seven a day,” said the former paperboy. Although he could scour the internet for news, Russert said, “I still like to hold a newspaper; it’s part of my upbringing.” Russert, 55, who is also a political analyst for NBC Nightly News and The Today Show, said this in response to Akron Beacon Journal reporter Sandra M. Klepach’s questions while delivering Tuesday’s Schooler Lecture at Mount Union College’s Timken Building.

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[edit] Examples of hard copies online

It would be difficult to find a daily newspaper in the UK or United States, infact in the world, in the 21st Century, that does not have or share a website.[11] Most student newspapers even have websites. At the same time, broadcast media have established websites in similar fashion. Media transitions in the beginning of the century have blurred the boundaries between print, broadcast and the internet. Websites are available now even on cellphones, and broadcasts on cellphones and all kinds of computers.

In the United States, from Hawaii to Maine, newspaper websites in particular have come online, and over the years have undergone transitions in design and content. Newspapers, wary of the Internet and desiring to compete, began in the mid 1990s with strong investment in local staffing for web newspapers. Over the decade, most have reduced their web staffing and automated many features, including placement of news and advertising. Consolidation and cost-cutting measures have come at the behest of corporate or chain headquarters, and components of web design and implementation have, in many respects, become centralized. Af first, newspapers attempted to individualize their offerings with unique and sometimes gaudy web pages, but soon found a need to simplify for the reader with smaller headlines and briefer stories on their fronts. Now, however, with the need for revenue beckoning, splashy animated ads and unlimited gimmickry, advertising videos and come-ons interfere with access to newspaper pages online. While most newspapers now have film clips online, these are studded with advertisements. Newspapers find themselves in hot competition for local classified ads with such services as Craigslist, and have lost much ground to mammoth web advertising from Google. Google and Yahoo in 2006 went on record saying that they wanted to have media partnerships[12] to incress their profits on both sides because the search engine can attract traffic and sell ads using the publication's brand name while mutually drawing visitors back to the magazine's home page.

Very few newspapers in the year 2006 will claim to have made money from their websites, which are most free to all viewers. Declining profit margins and declining circulation in daily newspapers have forced executives to contemplate new methods of obtaining revenue from websites, without charging for subscription. This has been difficult. Newspapers with specialized audiences such as The Wall Street Journal or the Chronicle of Higher Education, successfully charge subscription fees. Many of the web papers have simplified their URLs so that, for instance, miami.com will take you to The Miami Herald whose website first appeared in the mid-1990s. The Los Angeles Times features a web site, as do all of the large dailies in California. As with most newspapers, the website can also be reached by the name of the paper, as in latimes.com. The Washington Post, USA Today, The New York Times, and all major newspapers in the United States are reached easily.

The Guardian Unlimited. This is a National UK newspaper. Now has a world wide web Readership thanks to its guardian.co.uk website. The The Guardian also started to experimenting with new media in 2005, offering a free twelve part weekly Podcast series by Ricky Gervais.[13] Another UK National Newspaper to go online is The Daily Telegraph telegraph.co.uk website.

[edit] Examples of soft copy newspapers

Many small newspapers supplement or compete with the larger newspapers in their cities through websites and in other electronic formats as well as having hard copy newspapers.

[edit] Online-only newspapers

With the introduction of the internet, web based newspapers have also started to be produced as online only publications. To be a Web-Only newspaper they must be web published only and must not be part of or have any connection to hard copy formats. To be classed as a Online Only Newspaper the paper must also be regularly updated at a regular time and keep to a fixed news format, like a hardcopy newspaper. They must also be only published by professional media companies, be regarded under the national and international press rules and regulations[14] and have 80% or above news content.[15] For example, in 2000 an independent web only newspaper was introduced in the UK called Southport Reporter.[16] It is a weekly regional newspaper that is not produced or run in any format other than soft-copy on the internet by its publishers PCBT Photography. Unlike blog sites[17] and other news websites it is run as a newspaper and is recognized by media groups in the UK, like the NUJ and/or the IFJ. Also they fall under the UK's PCC rules.

[edit] Soft-copy news sheets

A news sheet is a paper that is on one or two pages only. Soft-copy sheets are like online newspapers, in that the have to be predominately news, not advert or gossip based. These sheets can be updated periodically or regularly, unlike a newspaper. Thay must also like a newspaper be regarded as a news oulet by media groups and governments like newspapers.

An online edition updated when appropriate, as in the small webpaper in Tallahassee, Florida, can bee seen by looking at THE TALLAHASSEE NEWS.

[edit] Future

The development of electronic newspapers, will very soon be replacing hard-copy printed papers via electronic paper. In February 2006, the Flemish daily De Tijd of Antwerp announced plans to distribute an electronic-ink version of the paper to selected subscribers. This will be the first such application of electronic ink to newspaper publishing. Also the future of newspapers see newspapers section.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Newspapers Recreate Their Medium" eJournal USA, March 2006 LINK
  2. ^ World Editors Forum
  3. ^ Report on AOP site
  4. ^ BBC
  5. ^ Journalism Magazine - "The UK PCC (Press Complaints Commission) before 2007 already regulated online editions of UK newspapers"
  6. ^ UK Copyright Law info. website
  7. ^ Data Protection Act 1998
  8. ^ See Journalism Mag. and also the PCC website AOP (UK Association of Online Publishers)
  9. ^ New York Magazine Holdings LLC also see Interactive Features of Online Newspapers by Keith Kenney, Alexander Gorelik and Sam Mwangi First Monday, volume 5, number 1 (January 2000) and also UK's PCC website press release.
  10. ^ Journalism Magazine - "The UK PCC (Press Complaints Commission) before 2007 already regulated online editions of UK newspapers"
  11. ^ "Newspapers Recreate Their Medium" eJournal USA, March 2006 LINK
  12. ^ Editors Web Blog
  13. ^ Jason Deans, 2005-12-08. "Gervais to host Radio 2 Christmas show." The Guardian.
  14. ^ Journalism Magazine - "The UK PCC (Press Complaints Commission) before 2007 already regulated online editions of UK newspapers"
  15. ^ Definitions of newspaper on the web:- [http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:newspaper&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title Google Link]
  16. ^ Published in UK as the "UK's only web-based newspaper" in January 2005 in hard copy magazine called "Web Pages Made Easy."
  17. ^ Google Define Blog

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

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