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Abstract
Extending a long-term study of three print newspapers from 1894 to 1994, the third in a series of studies shows electronic editions adapting to the online environment. The newspapers did not reinvent themselves online in 2001, instead reproducing the forms of print as a way to continue established relationships with readers. But readers were changing, and by 2005 the Web editions had shifted the form from mapping content to managing the reading experience. Users encountered stories with more jumps that could display advertisements and found links that kept traffic inside the site. By 2010 the sites were less meager compared to the design of print editions. The form had moved toward the index as a metaphor for public life, in the style of Web portals. The sites preferred content interactivity to interpersonal interactivity, continuing a long history of resisting innovation and new techniques for public engagement.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author wishes to thank Matthew Barnhurst and Will Gartside for coding and research assistance on this study, presented at the Future of Journalism conference, Cardiff, UK, September 8, 2011. This article is part of the Long News Project available online: www.uic.edu/~kgbcomm/longnews.