30% OF ONLINE CONSUMERS NOW TURN TO CABLE TV WEB SITES FOR NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL NEWS

JupiterResearch: Cable television and portal Web sites are well-positioned to dominate the online news market. While most online consumers still get their national and international news from television, 30% of online consumers turn to cable TV news sites for their national and international news versus 29% for print newspapers. News Web sites will need to make some key changes over the next one to two years in order to remain competitive. Among these changes are to embrace the "grammar of connectedness" - the features that link Web publishers to each other and to their readers more closely, such as syndication, aggregation, outside-the-site linking and feedback. Web news organizations must think of their fundamental product as the story, and not the site. A Web site is not experienced as a coherent product, but rather as individual pages, each of which serves as an entry point. Also, far too few Web news publishers have adopted the emerging "grammar of connectedness" that will drive growth on the Web in the next five years. The popularity of Web content over offline newspapers means newspapers must adapt to meet the needs of their changing audiences. Newspapers are advised to look to the Web not just to retain their older, offline user base, but to attract a younger - and in many cases, entirely different - group of users as well. Taking a predominantly local approach is another necessity for newspapers, since television and cable TV news sites already attract the most national and international news seekers. It is no surprise that newspaper circulation is declining,. The Internet has been eating away at the time consumers spend with other media. And now it is actually dictating an entirely new set of news habits and expectations. The Future of News Publ 20051221