ABSTRACT
In this information era, Harris and Hooke’s (1923) words still ring true. Newspapers today still need to engage members of their community in a dialogue and provide relevant news to readers. However, with the advent of the Internet and the popularity of the World Wide Web, the traditional relationship between newspapers and readers is changing. According to a recent government study, more than 143 million Americans-or roughly 54% of the populationuse the Internet, and 2 million Americans go online monthly (A Nation Online,
2002). Of these 143 million users, more than 90 million Americans have participated in online communities, a cyberspace feature quickly becoming a staple of online com-munication (Horrigan, 2001). Further, a recent report by the Center for Media Research (2003) found that Americans, while at work, “depend heavily on the Internet for breaking news and information compared to traditional media.” Moreover, studies have demonstrated that online newspaper sites attract a substantial audience from their local markets. The Washington Post’s online site, for instance, was found to attract 40.2% of the adults in its immediate market (Greenspan, 2002).
