s under analysis herein, including number of Web site visitors, typical content and other factors. The Web site content analysis and Web site design analyses are then provided. These two sections compare and contrast the content and design of all three online U.K. broadsheets. A conclusion summarizes the information analyzed in the previous sections and offers a future scenario of the online newspaper industry. Appendices referred to in-text are included following the conclusion, with a list of Works Cited at the end of the document.
An “electronic”, “online”, “Web” or “Internet” newspaper is one that is accessible through electronic means over the Internet and World Wide Web. Various trends have been responsible for the rise in online newspapers. New technologies, PC saturation, declining technology costs, increasing publishing costs, and an increase in consumer Internet savvy are among the most significant reason for the rise in the number of traditional or new newspapers available in electronic format over the World Wide Web. As readership continues to decline, printing costs continue to rise. According to Mings (1997), “The price of newsprint has tripled in the past 25 years, as newspaper readership has taken its dive” (1). Another significant factor in the rise of online newspapers is the increasing competition to deliver news in a rapid manner in order to compete with non-newspapers electronic sources of news and cable television. So, too, the increasing number of Internet users worldwide has created a demand for news that is delivered in a timely manner, provides a multimedia presentation, and that is electronically accessible 24 hours 7 days a week. Further diminishing print newspaper revenues is advertising drain. Increased competition and new technologies that provide advertisers less costly forms of greater penetration have crippled print newspaper advertising in the 1990s. As Ming (1997) m...