Well, it looks like online newspapers are finally coming of age. Their growth on the Net has been substantial over the past year. Four thousand newspapers are expected to be online by the end of 1997, the Newslink Associates research firm is reporting. There were less than 100 online, in 1995.

Canada now has 230, and—along with the U.K., Norway, Brazil, and Germany—has experienced the most growth. In fact, international online newspapers now make up 49 percent of the total.

The proliferation of online newspapers caused NewsNet to fold. The online news service, created in 1982, culled 1,000 different sources for their subscribers. But it was a pay-per-use service. Most online newspapers provide their information for free. In early August, employees were told NewsNet had basically been rendered obsolete.

But really, none of this makes any difference to the old media whose size and audience makes any new media venture look insignificant.

What really makes an impression on journalists in any media, new or old, is the scoop. Especially a really big scoop.

And the scooping is underway. On July 29, the San Fransico Chronicle reported that anonymous sources said Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computers, would be announcing on August 6 that he will be the company's next chairman. Rumours had been flying around the Net for a month about this. The article pushed Apple's stock up 6 percent.

And it was first published on the Net.

The Chronicle decided to run the story on the Net first, believing the story was too hot for the next edition on Wednesday. The old media picked up on the story and ran wild with it. When the print edition of Chronicle finally ran the story, it appeared on the front page.

It doesn't really matter that the story was wrong. (Jobs ended up announcing a $150 million U.S. investment into Apple from their arch-nemesis Microsoft.) The situation merely illustrates that new media journalism is at maturing (see Wired News' insightful opinion piece on this matter) and is impacting the old media's ways.

This isn't the first time a scoop's been handed over to an online edition, either. On Friday, February 29, 1997 new media history was made. The Dallas Morning News—a highly respected American paper—ran a controversial story in its online edition about Timothy McVeigh. When the paper got a hold of McVeigh's "jailhouse confession" it didn't wait for the high-circulation Saturday edition to run the story.

By doing so, it—in essence—scooped itself. More importantly, the Morning News was able to get the story out first. It didn't have to worry that another organization would get the story out first. And, unlike the problems The New York Times and Washington Post ran into over the Pentagon Papers, the Morning News wasn't inhibited by judicial red tape. These are important points, according to Jon Katz, Wired magazine's media editor.

"For perhaps the first time, a major print news organization decided that electronic media was the best way to report breaking news," wrote Katz.

"Like TV or radio, the Web is a powerful vehicle for transmitting a news story to a wide audience—within hours this one was on almost every radio and TV station in the country."

Online newspapers, he wrote, can operate as "a powerful middle ground between old and new media." He adds an important point that newspapers like the San Francisco Chronicle have begun to understand: "The paper remains a necessary adjunct the next day for analysis, follow-up and contextual detail and reaction."

As Canadian online newspapers begin to enter their second year of existence, they should look south at the example set by papers like the Chronicle and the Morning News. Breaking stories in the Web edition won't hurt the print version. Rather, it would probably serve to boost the reputation of the publication—both on- and offline.