Maybe this is a little bit self effacing and biased because I work for the student newspaper here, but I wanted to point out something that shows the importance of online media at a student level. Yesterday, The GW Hatchet broke the news that GW has chosen a new president to replace Trachtenberg when he retires this spring. It was probably the best use and design (and the biggest story for the paper since Trachtenberg announced he was retiring after 18 years as president) of The Hatchet's Web site I've ever seen and was really impressed.
The Hatchet's site shows that it can compete on a professional level with the rest of online news -- it's big headline giving the story prominence, the graphic behind the text, the links to other stories about the presidential search and the photo slide show of Trachtenberg's reign was a completely multimedia approach to the biggest story this semester.
Also, it should recognized that The Hatchet scooped all other media outlets on this story and even today's Washington Post story on the new president selection mentioned that GW's student newspaper was the first to report the story. In an e-mail to the staff last night from Hatchet Editor in Chief Caitlin Carroll, she said, "(GW media relations director) Tracy Schario called me tonight and said congratulations on our reporting job. She also said that she's received calls tonight from some other publications, including the Washington Business Journal, who said they can't believe they got scooped by a student paper...."
I also think it's important to point out that for The Hatchet, having a great Web presence on this story is essential. The student newspaper only prints twice a week (Monday and Thursday) and the story broke Monday afternoon, meaning it won't be in the print version until three days later. I just thought it was worth it to point out that even at GW the advancement of online news is having an effect.
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