[icernet] Online news is the journalism of today and tomorrow

[Arul Selvan]

  Asia Times columnist, John Berthelsen, notes encouraging trends for 
online journalism worldwide and in Asia. According to the Online 
Publishers Association (OPA) ad revenues for online publications have 
increased to 40.2% during the first quarter of 2003. Anecdotal reports 
reveal the trend relevant to Asia. The online ad revenue surge is a 
continuation from the previous year
indicative of long-term improvement. Many online publications went broke 
even in 2002, leading Berthelsen to draw the conclusion that, many 
reporters and editors in the print news business see themselves in 
basically a dying profession,' as the Internet becomes the preferred 
news medium. Readers have also turned to the net for real-time news, 
the Iraq war being a case in point. Asian news sites are catching on to 
the power of net journalism, while statistics arent available for Asia 
many examples abound. The Bangkok Post Web site now carries ads from 
Imperial Hotels Group, VAIO
Computers, Sony products and art galleries. The South China Morning 
Posts Marketplace section has ads for products including hotels, 
fashion apparel, perfume and cosmetics, books and travel reservations. 
Other Asian news sites havent exploited the medium to the same extent, 
The Taiwan News only has an ad for the Ping Tom Blue Fin Tuna Cultural 
Festival and The China Daily carries a handful of ads, both in English 
and Chinese. The rise in advertising can also be linked to the increase 
in broadband users as Internet ads become more like welltargeted mini 
movies. The net also offers better rates for ads, Forbes Magazine 
reported in May that it costs about US$5 to reach 1,000 Internet users, 
against US$31 to broadcast the same message on prime-time network 
television to 1,000 viewers. The Internet audience is wealthier, younger 
and better educated, as statistics have shown. All in all, John 
Berthelsen, makes a pretty strong case for Internet journalism.

Source:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/EF14Dj01.html