*The Integrated Newsroom - Age Online Findings*

4.1.1 Online Journalist's Professional Practice

At The Age, the Internet has influenced the role of the journalist and there was initially a resistance to the WWW.

Initially the WWW was virtually unknown. When I told people I managed websites for a living, they went, 'What?' The newsroom was very against us and the copyright issue didn't help it. I was seen as this crazy person and explained my work to those who were interested and that required patience. Today you see URLs everywhere and it has become part of our lives. When we showed journalists' their copy online, they got such a buzz. I recall a meeting with a senior editor to decide what we should put online, and he told me blankly, "My worry is one day, I won't have a job because we won't have a newspaper."

(Riekert pers comm, 7 September 1999)

However Riekert added that this attitude is slowly changing and related a recent experience.

I was at the Budget lockup in Canberra with a senior deputy editor as part of The Age's online coverage. It ended at 7.30pm and by 7.33pm, with a click of the submit button we had our 12 stories online. For the first time, he understood the immediacy of the WWW, and its power as a medium and from then things began to change editorially.

(ibid)

To maximise the immediacy and potential of news transmission via the WWW, an online reporter normally covers an important local event, alongside a print journalist. This online reporter writes a short article within a strict deadline which acts as a lead in to the in-depth coverage provided in the print edition the next day. A short audio clip augments the online story. McDonald (pers comm, 18 Nov 1999) explains how stories are chosen for both the online and print papers;

The journalist writing the story generally has no say in whether it [the story] is posted online or only in the newspaper. It is up to the online editors to decide which stories go on the site. The exception here is, we have a small online reporting staff who report for us. When a story by an online [reporter] is posted on the website, the situation is reversed É the newspaper editors can use it in the paper if they so choose. In an interview on 31 Aug 1999, former The Age Online Editor, Alan Morison who recently developed SportsToday.com.au, said some journalists still see the Internet as a threat but feels that,

it is a working tool and journalists will need to absorb new skills. They need to become librarians, marketers and provide directory services [in the form of links and background information]. Online writing is different, it needs to be shorter and immediate. Information is more accessible and with tools like e-mail, he/she needs to be more sure of facts.

Riekert (pers comm, 7 September 1999)) feels that though additional skills are required, the deadline pressure is intensified and there is a need to be more productive.

People who are already very busy, are now pressured to produce more. They say 'Don't put that extra strain on me É I haven't the time for that additional work.' On the WWW, there are no real deadlines as it rolls all the time and that's not very different from print. Basically the pressure is to get it right in as short as possible a time. The real pressure won't come until competition with other online products intensifies.

While producing the online edition on 21 August 1999, Sam Verghese, a casual production staff with extensive subediting experience said there are three major differences between print and online journalism:

It is the ability to make changes with ease even after the information has been uploaded,
The journalists' access to a wide range of information
This requires the journalist to be extra cautious of the content he/she puts online.

Morison (pers comm, 31 August 1999) expands on point three:

We need to be surer of out facts than ever. When we carried a story on China's take-over of Hong Kong and the reporter wrote about the uniformed personnel and the official ceremonies involved. A reader emailed to say that in actual fact, the ceremony was not as 'dramatic' as it was made out to be and life hadn't changed at all. We need to be more responsible to what we write and pick up information from the WWW carefully as it is an open channel and carries lots more gossip.