The traditional newspaper is a staple in society. It is carried on through the centuries as a means of mass communicating of vital information

Today, the traditional newspaper no longer serves just one purpose. It is versatile and ever evolving to better fit the needs and wants of the consumer.

Since the introduction of the World Wide Web, the newspaper has made a jump. It can deliver its product around the clock and in mass quantities.

Breaking news can be instantly broadcasted via the web and updated instantly as events in a story unfold.

One of the newer innovations of the online world however is blogging. These online journals have been applied to the world of journalism with great success. Scott Clark, vice president of the online department at the Houston Chronicle, said he can attest to that.

“One of the things that Chron.com has been particularly innovative on is the development of blogs. A year ago we were named the best blogging newspaper - by a mile,” Clark said. “What that has done for us is really given us a connection with our readers that we didn't have before.”

Yet another innovation in its earlier stages is the use of “channels,” Clark said.

“The potential for building audience and traffic on the site from news is limited. There's only so much news people want to consume,” said Clark who has been in the newspaper industry for 32 years. “To really dramatically increase the audience for our site, we have to look beyond this. The primary way we're doing that is through the development of web channels. Basically it comes down to is that these are topic pages, whether its golf, hunting and fishing, parenting, pets and so on.

“What we hope to do over the next several years is create dozens of these channels that, taken together, will provide anyone the answer to almost any topic that they would want to address,” he said. “If you want to find something out about Houston you'd have to come to chron.com.”

With a product so much more versatile and useful offered online, it has become a certainty that the future of the world of Journalism will be online. The reporting of news alone cannot hold an audience, but that is not to say that traditional news reporting has no place here, Clark said.



“What will set us apart is our ability to create, gather and distribute local content, not just news. News will still be an important part of what we do, but I look at news as kind of the milk and the bread and the eggs of the grocery store,” Clark said. “They put them in the back of the store, everybody goes there for milk bread and eggs but you have to walk by a lot of other stuff before you get to it, and that’s really what we want to do - create more choices for people.”

Ultimately the traditional printed word will change to better suit the needs and wants of the consumer, the same way Online has.

“The newspaper will change. I think it will become more like a daily news magazine,” said Clark. “You'll see more forward looking coverage, more features, more analysis and more visually oriented presentation similar to those you would see in a magazine.”

Though the future of Journalism is in the realm of Online, no one knows what tomorrow will bring.

“In this space is very difficult to say what the future holds,” Clark said. “There's something that somebody’s building in a garage today that tomorrow could be the most important thing for us."