Neil Budde, a visitor to the class from The Wall Street Journal, gave perhaps the biggest insight which will determine the future of news providers on the Internet. He said that the biggest challenge for any provider was to "give users a reason to come back". There are now so many news providers on the Internet, that competition is real and increasing. Providers can only justify charging advertisers a fee, let alone subscribers, if a loyal and regular user base can be built up. This also gives the key to how the Internet news providers can achieve this, through value added services that traditional news distribution channels are not able to provide.
Many examples of value added services have been given in this paper, from links to other stories or information sources, through searchable archives, searchable classified advertising, stock quote and portfolio management applications, even to the combination of different technologies such as video and sound, and the use of push as well as the more traditional pull technologies. Thus one can expect to see the real winners as those who are able to offer the best value added services. Traditional news distribution systems are not going to disappear (e.g. the newspaper) - they are too useful in a variety of situations, but the Internet does allow for a vast array of new possibilities for formatting and delivering news to the end consumer. The Internet is an addition to the traditional news distribution channels, a complementor as well as a competitor.
Finally, one might speculate on the future of news on the Internet. As well as far more value added services, one might expect to see in the future: