newsroomnext

Your Web site, like your paper non-Web information product, has its own distinct needs and rules of operation.

Shoveling stories that were conceptualized, reported and executed for a print non-Web product onto a Web site will not create an effective Web site.

Using one staff for two products, though the norm out of financial necessity and cultural traction, will compromise both.

Try this:

• Hire journalists to create content only for your Web site.

Is Web content really that much different?

It is if it’s done well, at least at this stage of technology’s usability.

Web content is:

• Faster (in terms of production and consumption) and shorter;
• It works as a continually evolving collection of micro-stories instead of an all-encompassing package (a spray of bullets vs. a bomb);
• It filters and interconnects information sources.

Money is the challenge.

Whatever publication commands the most revenue will command the most resources. Print wins.

Will online ever come out on top? Maybe not. It’s growing, but more slowly, according to the State of the News Media 2007 report.

It seems the journalism business will be much smaller in the future.