The explosion of electronic journalism (Editor and Publisher reports an 83 percent increase in newspaper web sites in the last two years) and the increasing range of options for instantaneous news coverage are easily documented. Beyond tallying these increased news outlets, however, media analysts also can begin examining the impact of this method of news delivery and the evolving function of online editors. Although traditional daily newspaper criteria -- such as issue or event prominence, local relevance, and reader interest -- still guide many editors in filling the screens of their online editions, audience-centered formulae are also driving the journalistic decision-making process on content inclusion, placement, and tone. Based on page impression data, textual analysis of daily newspaper web pages, and interviews with online editors and new media managers, this paper will address the major factors in the online newspaper's gatekeeping function.

In this post-modern, post-Einsteinian period, time becomes space, as most major dailies are able to expand exponentially from three, static print editions to 24-hour web pages with updates every few minutes. Given the myriad wire service, syndicated, and in-house sources for news copy, the online editor sifts daily through a melange of possible stories. The electronic news budgeting process becomes a constant hacking through copy, photo files, and wire service updates to decide which stories will be displayed, which deserve headline links, and which will be discarded for lack of space, importance, or reader interest. Once editors select articles, they still wrestle with issues of placement and display as they fashion a 'look' and 'feel' for their web sites that often differ significantly (usually less conservative) from the tone of their printed-page counterparts. Running throughout this sequence is a more emphatic version of the age-old, editorial gatekeeping quandaries: What should we show our readers versus what do our readers want to see? And, add to that the bottom-line corollary of today's competitive electronic marketplace: How many page views will it get? 

A regional media firm in North Carolina with a history as a technological early adopter was one of the first television stations to establish a World Wide Web presence and the first to begin broadcasting a digital signal. This paper is a historical and descriptive overview of WRAL OnLine's evolving Web site design as a reflection (or social construction) of the company's identity and its relationship with the community.

This study examined the extent to which U.S. daily newspapers are using available technologies, including multimedia and interactivity, for development of World Wide Web sites. It also looks at how the three content types (local, regional, and national online newspapers) vary in their use of features commonly found in the design of a Web site. The study employed content analysis of the online newspapers at two different ten-day time periods --- during fall 1998 and during summer 1999 -- to evaluate usage of Web technologies. The study found that most online newspapers have adopted innovations -- for example, links to related information and consumer services such as searchable classifieds. But most sites have not deployed other features, such as the use of Java, and plug-in based technologies. Significant differences were found between the two time periods.