The Internet already has proven to be an integrative force for the channels by which news has traditionally been disseminated. All of the 'old' distribution methods, television, printed media, radio, wire services, are offered together through one single channel, the Internet. A single news story can contain information presented by all of the channels together.

The purpose of this research project is to analyze what this new medium, the Internet, means as a channel for distributing news, what the 'traditional' news providers are doing about it, the economics and business models, and the future as the authors see it, of news on the Internet.

To provide a framework, 19 Web sites were chosen to act as data sources for our research. The reasons the Web sites were chosen include:

• They represent different 'traditional' news reporting services, as well as the Web-specific new ones
• They offer international as well as USA representation
• They utilize different business models and charging schemes, as well as exhibit different uses of push and pull technologies