By Tarek Atia NEWSPAPERS have traditionally considered their articles as the end point of a conversation, rather than the beginning. Today's news users, however, are forcing a major seismic change in that dynamic. The vast array of tools available to readers via the Internet -- including wikis, aggregators and blogs -- are the new watchdogs, voraciously examining everything the print media does and pontificating on it instantly and endlessly, to an ever expaning audience. For now, says Columbia University professor Eli Noam, that has led to a situation where "online and print newspapers depend on each other symbiotically." But even though "today, the online world feeds on the print world," Noam says, "like a cancer... it can kill its host." That's why newspapers must undergo a "structural transformation" if they are to thrive in the digital age. Basically, papers have to "shift from a mechanical to a digital mind-set." Web migration of classified advertising -- long a mainstay of the print newspaper industry -- is just one example of how traditional business models are being pulled out from under print publishers' rugs by new technologies. The sites sites below provide major examples of the serious challenges being posed to an industry that has managed to survive developments like radio and TV by adapting to changing needs. Wikipedia -- Everyone's an expert WITH SOME five billion page views a month and only three full time staffers, Wikipedia is living proof of the web's transformative prowess. A simple idea based on users generating encyclopaedia- like entries for any subject on earth (and in nearly every major language), Wikipedia has quickly grown into the world's largest encyclopaedia -- with a circulation far greater than most major US news dailies combined. It is often the first port of call for Internet users seeking a comprehensive summary of information on any given topic -- including breaking news like Hurricane Katrina and the Danish cartoon crisis -- as well as links to lots of other coverage. Having succeeded beyond its founder Jimmy Wales' wildest dreams, Wikipedia is also set to enter the news market as well. Accuracy issues have obviously been a concern, since the material is only as good as those volunteers who contribute and edit the site, but Wales is confident that he has created a whole new paradigm for the way people give and receive information worldwide. Yahoo News -- Watch this space NEWS aggregators like Yahoo are rapidly shifting into content generation. Ever since the portal/search engine hired veteran journalist Neil Budde to direct its news operations in November 2004, original content and a much less haphazard approach to news have been Yahoo's style. Budde told last week's World Editors Forum in Moscow about how the site hired video blogger Kevin Sites to provide it with exclusive multimedia coverage of war zones worldwide. He also tried to explain to newspaper editors why it might be a good idea to partner with Yahoo to distribute their content. Don't worry, he said, "we are not out to become a fully fledged news organisation." Partnering with Yahoo might, though, be a great way for papers to tap into the huge Yahoo community, and thus attract a lot of people who wouldn't ordinarily be exposed to their particular news source. Meanwhile, Budde continues to think of new ways that Yahoo can transform the media scene: by expanding its multimedia efforts; by bringing in user-generated content via photo-sharing sites like flickr, and a whole slew of other ideas -- all of which is certain to cement its continuing emergence as a major news player. Technorati -- Making blogs accessible A SEARCH engine for blogs, Technorati helps people find out what independent commentators are talking about at any given time. It has been tremendously helpful to anyone who is looking for a plurality of voices on any given subject, and provides a great barometer of non-mainstream media-based global opinions. Founded by US software entrepreneur Dave Sifry, the site's popularity has also meant that the major news players have really taken notice. One big coup is the Washington Post 's new, and very innovative, way of using Technorati to let readers know which blogs are talking about any particular story the Post may have published. We are certain to see more of that particular type of traditional and new media marriage in the days to come, as an increasing number of news users choose to become part of the conversation, rather than mere recipients of big media's top-down approach to news. Google News -- Mapping the world EVEN as the founder and top executives at Google News continued to comfort the newspaper industry about their good intentions, the search-turned-news-engine has not ceased to have a major impact on the media. In Moscow, Nathan Stolle, Google News Product Manager, tried to reassure the world's press that Google presents news organisations with countless opportunities to reach a wider reading public. A year earlier, in Seoul, the site's founder tried to do the same. According to Stolle, the news aggregator is "not trying to have an editorial voice". In fact, Google News encourages readers to survey numerous publications at the same time so that they get a wide variety of views on a certain topic. "We want to establish symbiotic relationships (with publishers) where we can add value," Stolle said. "We want to make readers become more passionate about news." That may be true, but it also levels the playing field between major players like the New York Times and a small local paper covering the same subject. Evidence of Google News's prowess can be found on a very interesting site called Newsmap, which visually reflects the constantly changing landscape of the Google news aggregator. According to its creators -- Marcos Weskamp and Dan Albritton -- the site (pictured above) provides a treemap visualisation that helps display the enormous amount of information gathered by Google News, by dividing it into quickly recognisable bands that "reveal underlying patterns in news reporting across cultures and within news segments in constant change around the globe." Basically -- like Google News itself -- it helps put things in perspective in a far more simple, and complex, way than the traditional media ever could.
