Interesting story from USA Today -- NEWZ fills the bill on this issue.
More original content found on Web
NEW YORK (AP) - Many newspapers and magazines are increasing the amount of original material on their Web sites, part of a shift toward using the Internet as a unique medium rather than an alternate distribution system.
In a survey being released Tuesday, 58% of newspapers and magazines had a Web site. Of those, 31% used original material for at least half their online content - more than four times the number of publications that did so in 1996.
''There's a bigger news hole and wonderful new storytelling tools,'' said Steve Ross, who conducted the survey.
However, he noted that the emphasis on round-the-clock coverage had its downside.
''Journalists often got the story wrong, concentrated on breaking news rather than features and skirted long-standing ethical practices,'' said Ross, a professor at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
As examples, he pointed to The Wall Street Journal's and The Dallas Morning News' retractions of online stories during the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
Ross and a New York public relations firm questioned the business editors and managing editors of 1,420 daily newspapers and 2,000 magazines last fall. This is the fifth year of the survey.
They found that although publications are developing more content specifically for the Web, only 18% routinely let their Web sites scoop their printed editions. Sixty-two percent never allowed it.
Ross also found that 2% of journalists said they had no access to the Internet, and only 5% said they never or almost never went online.
The full survey can be found Tuesday at mediasource.com
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