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An online newspaper, also known as a web newspaper, is a newspaper that exists on the World Wide Web or Internet, either separately or as an online version of a printed periodical.

Going online created more opportunities for newspapers, such as competing with broadcast journalism in presenting breaking news in a more timely manner. The credibility and strong brand recognition of well-established newspapers, and the close relationships they have with advertisers, 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.

Professional journalists have some advantages over blogs, as editors are normally aware of the potential for legal problems.^[2]

Online newspapers are much like hard-copy newspapers and have the same legal boundaries, such as laws regarding libel, privacy and copyright,^[3] also apply to online publications in most countries, like in the UK. Also in the UK the Data Protection Act applies to online newspapers and news pages.^[4] 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 newspaper. In 2007, a ruling was passed to formally regulate UK based online newspapers, news audio, and news video websites covering the responsibilities expected of them and to clear up what is, and what isn't, an online publication.^[5]

News reporters are being taught to shoot video^[6] and to write in the succinct manner necessary for the Internet news pages. Many are learning how to implement blogs and the ruling 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.^[7]

Some newspapers have attempted to integrate the internet into every aspect of their operations, i.e., 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. The Newspaper National Network LP is an online advertising sales partnership of the Newspaper Association of America and 25 major newspaper companies.

Introduction

In the developing world online publishers are drawing large amounts of traffic and reaping the rewards of online publishing. The oldest example of an online newspaper or in this case a weekly summary over the weekend's news is the Weekend City Press Review, set up in 1991 this was a pioneer in the online market. Popular in the city, this subscription based service continues to run today. But they are based on hard copy reports and papers. See 'Hybrid newspapers' section of this page. Truly 'Online Only' newspapers and magazines started much later, with the exception of "News Report", an online newspaper created by Bruce Parrello in 1974 on the PLATO system at the University of Illinois.

Examples of newspaper online

It would be difficult to find a daily newspaper in the UK or United States, in fact in the world, in the 21st century, that does not have or share a website.^[1]

Very few newspapers in 2006 will claim to have made money from their websites, which are mostly 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. Most newspapers now have an online edition, including, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, and The New York Times.

The Guardian experimented with new media in 2005, offering a free twelve part weekly podcast series by Ricky Gervais.^[8] Another UK daily to go online is The Daily Telegraph.

In India, major newspapers went online to provide latest and most updated news from them Times of India, Hindustan Times, The Hindu, Indian Express and The New Indian Express. Some newspapers even provide E-Paper which is regarded as the digital replica of the newspaper.

In Australia, some newspapers corporations offer an online version to let their readers read the news online, such as The Australian, Sydney Morning Herald.

The Santiago Times operates out of Santiago, Chile and is 100% on line, editions are published in English covering Chilean current events daily Monday through Friday..

Online-only newspapers

The true online only paper is a paper that does not have any hard copy connections. An example of this is an independent web only newspaper, introduced in the UK in 2000, called the Southport Reporter. 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 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. But even print media is turning to online only publication. As of 2009, the collapse of the traditional business model of print newspapers has led to various attempts to establish local, regional or national online-only newspapers - publications that do original reporting, rather than just commentary or summaries of reporting from other publications. An early major example in the U.S. is the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which stopped publishing after 149 years in March 2009 and went online only. In Scotland in 2010, Caledonian Mercury was set, as Scotland's first online-only newspaper with the same aims as Southport Reporter, in the UK.

In the US, technology news websites such as CNET, TechCrunch, and ZDNet started as web publications and enjoy comparable readership to the conventional newspapers. Also, with the ever-rising popularity of online media, veteran publications like the US News & World Report are abandoning print and going online-only.

Hybrid newspapers

There are some newspapers which are predominantly an online newspaper, but also provide limited hard copy publishing^[9] An example is annarbor.com, which replaced the Ann Arbor News in the summer of 2009. It is primarily an online newspaper, but publishes a hardcopy twice a week.^[10]

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 they have to be predominantly news, not advert or gossip based. These sheets can be updated periodically or regularly, unlike a newspaper. They must also like a newspaper be regarded as a news outlet by media groups and governments.^[11]

Future

The development of electronic newspapers, will very soon be supplementing 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 would have been the first such application of electronic ink to newspaper publishing.

Fair use

In a question and answer session, suggestions that Google and the Internet was eroding the intellectual property rights of newspapers was downplayed.^[12]

See also

• Electronic journalism
• Internet
• Internet radio
• Internet television
• Newspaper
• Online magazine
• World Wide Web

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Newspapers Recreate Their Medium" eJournal USA, March 2006 LINK
2. ^ Report on AOP site
3. ^ UK Copyright Law info. website
4. ^ Data Protection Act 1998
5. ^ See Journalism Mag. and also the PCC website AOP (UK Association of Online Publishers)
6. ^ 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.
7. ^ Journalism Magazine - "The UK PCC (Press Complaints Commission) before 2007 already regulated online editions of UK newspapers"
8. ^ Jason Deans, 2005-12-08. "Gervais to host Radio 2 Christmas show." The Guardian.
9. ^ AnnArbor.com AnnArbor.com - Geoff Larcom. (retrieved 24 Aug. 2009).
10. ^ AnnArbor.com AnnArbor.com - About Us section. (retrieved 24 Aug. 2009).
11. ^ "newsletter." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. (retrieved 5 Feb. 2007).
12. ^ Google addresses newspaper woes

Further reading

• Herre van Oostendorp and Christof van Nimwegen (September 1998). "Locating Information in an Online Newspaper". Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 4 (1). http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol4/issue1/oostendorp.html. 
• McAdams, Melinda (July 1995). "Inventing an Online Newspaper" (– ^{Scholar search}). Interpersonal Computing and Technology 3 (3): 64–90. http://www.eric.ed.gov/sitemap/html_0900000b8001fe35.html. ^{[dead link]}
• Hsiang Iris Chyi and George Sylvie (1998). "Competing With Whom? Where? And How? A Structural Analysis of the Electronic Newspaper Market". Journal of Media Economics 11 (2): 1–18. doi:10.1207/s15327736me1102_1. 
• CARINA IHLSTRÖM, MARIA ÅKESSON, an STIG NORDQVIST (2004-07-07) (PDF). FROM PRINT TO WEB TO E-PAPER — THE CHALLENGE OF DESIGNING THE E-NEWSPAPER. http://diginews.se/files/040627_elpub_carina_maria_stig.pdf. 
• Hanluain, D. O. (2004-02-13). "Free content becoming thing of the past for UK's online newspaper sites". Online Journalism Review. http://www.ojr.org/ojr/business/1067472919.php. 
• Hsiang Iris Chyi and Dominic L. Lasorsa (2002). "An Explorative Study on the Market Relation Between Online and Print Newspapers". Journal of Media Economics 15 (2): 91–106. doi:10.1207/S15327736ME1502_2. 

External links

• Online newspapers at the Open Directory Project
• Online Newspapers in all countries in the world (Newspaper Index)