Retooling Online News   

They may be losing money, but shrinking dotcoms won't fade away.

LET'S GET ONE THING straight: The online news business is not imploding, crashing or otherwise heading for violent demise. This is one instance where "restructuring" is not just happy speak for "last gasping breath."
It's true that many Web sites are in survival mode: They're finding shelter, shedding extra baggage and conserving resources. By doing this they will weather the dotcom depression and probably come out stronger in the end.
Less certain is which employees within these companies will survive, and how their positions and job skills might change when the clouds clear. Here's a little hindsight, a bit of bold speculation and some advice.
Let's begin with the hindsight:
When online news was a hot young thing, every mainstream media company rightly realized that it needed an online presence. That Web effort became a separate department or division, for two reasons.
First, the mantra of the day was that Web content is consumed differently from printed or spoken news and deserves specialized treatment. Since there was no easy way to translate TV or newspaper stories to the Web, a separate staff was hired to produce, package and enhance that content in online form.
Second, setting up a stand-alone operation primed the Web venture for independent sales and Wall Street investors.
Well, it turns out that staffing a news Web site is expensive and (so far) seldom profitable. Even when the viewers are there, revenue doesn't always follow.
In 2000, online news sites started handing out pink slips and shelving their IPO dreams (see "Downsized Dotcoms"). Several companies that spun off Internet ventures in the late '90s are wrapping them back into the fold and consolidating their Internet divisions.
Which might not be such a bad thing (here comes the prognostication):
Perhaps online news sites can bang out a more cost- and time-efficient product if they consolidate resources and work flow.
The first revolution in online news was the concept of creating or enhancing content specifically for the Web. The next revolution might very well be combining technologies and resources so that some Web content can be generated simultaneously with print or TV stories. If it made sense to piggyback on the reporting and promotional resources of a traditional media organization, might it make even more sense to share production processes as well?
With the right technology and training (both considerable hurdles), reporters and producers who are familiar with both mediums could produce packages for Web and TV within the same software interface.
The current "consolidation" trend might not go quite that far--right now most companies are combining diversified Web operations rather than merging them with their TV or print kin--but as software becomes more powerful the concept of a fully integrated news operation might make sense. (When CNN announced layoffs in January, it also said that correspondents would have to start filing Web stories with their reports.)
This is not to suggest that the excellent original content we see on the Web today might or should become obsolete. Nor will there ever be software smart enough to translate scripts written for broadcast into something that makes sense in print.
Which brings us to the advice. Web editors who still have jobs they enjoy must be wondering how best to keep them, or at least stay in the business.
First, learn about offline journalism. Already the most appealing jobs are going to journalists who can bridge the communication gap between traditional and Web newsrooms. If your Web site has a traditional media partner, make an effort to understand how it works and perhaps try to get a little hands-on experience.
Second, look for opportunities to demonstrate your talents. A few years ago the position of online news editor might have required unique skills such as HTML editing or graphic design. But nowadays, Web publishing software makes most of those skills unnecessary.
Finally, keep your résumé ready and your eyes open. Save your most successful packages on disk, and record the number of views they received. Also emphasize any experience you may have gained interacting and promoting joint projects with your traditional media partner.
Despite the layoffs and reorganizations, none of these companies is shutting down its Web operations. The very idea sounds absurd. We might have to be patient while the technology, users and sales strategies catch up with our own vision of what online news should be. But have no doubt--this is a beginning, not an end.