Introduction

It is increasingly recognised that recent developments in digital communications and broadcast technologies will have a wide-ranging impact on conventional news media. For example, we have already witnessed new, experimental television programmes in which on-line audiences can actively participate in programmes, and agreements are currently in place to facilitate new forms of co-operation between national broadcasters, newspaper publishers and telecommunication companies. In the short term, perhaps the clearest example of the ways in which digital technologies are affecting the ‘media’ is illustrated by the enthusiasm with which conventional newspapers, such as the Daily Telegraph, Le Monde and the New York Times are providing on-line new services alongside their conventional broadsheet. These services place considerable demands on those responsible for producing the news. Journalists and editorial staff have to produce new and attractive products; they have to shape news produced for one medium, such as newspapers, for another and, increasingly, they have to tailor, in some cases the same, material for particular types of reader.

For some companies, providing electronic on-line news services for a heterogeneous readership is by no means new.