What online news sites have to offer

In class this evening Ryan Thornburg, managing editor of U.S. News & World Report's USnews.com site came to class to speak about his experience in online news -- he's been at it since before online news was even popular, working also with CQ.com and washingtonpost.com as well as having his own blog in 2002 on Carolina politics -- and he enlightened me about one aspect of mainstream media online sites that I never thought of before. In this information age where there is so much stuff out there and everything is for free -- from blogs to wikis to non-traditional news sites to mainstream news sites -- how can mainstream media attract an audience?

Thornburg said that one way they do still attract an audience is by providing readers "tools" instead of "information." He started off by pointing out that this is what drives people to pay thousands of dollars a year for a subscription to CQ.com's intricate site for information they can surely find for free by scouring the Web. "One thing I think is interesting about CQ is that they don't really sell information," he said. "What they sell are tools. They have to find a justification for people to pay...at CQ it's all in one place, layered on top of each other."

These database features on mainstream media sites are one of the key aspects to getting users, and something I mostly have overlooked. CQ has databases allowing users to search for any bill in the past few Congresses or for any congressman across the country, or get demographic information about any of the 435 congressional districts (unfortunately I can't link to them because you need a subscription to have access).

Washingtonpost.com, where Thornburg worked as national and international editor, has used its site to promote similar feature. The Post's site also has a congressional votes database, profiling members of Congress and letting readers view their voting record. They also have a database on political ads that ran through yesterday's election, as well as tons of special projects where they give in depth coverage on everything from the Jack Abramoff scandal to Sept. 11 to the Iraq war to Watergate. I agree with Thornburg that it's these distinctions and in depth coverage that keeps mainstream media on top in the online world and the first source of information for many Americans still. It's this quality type of reporting that other non-traditional online news sources lack.

**Something off topic** Well not really, because I mentioned Watergate in that last paragraph. Anyway, Thornburg also told an incredibly interesting story about his version of the day the story broke that Deep Throat's identity was W. Mark Felt. "We got scooped man. It hurt," he said. "It hurts when you get scooped on a story that you should own."

He was at washingtonpost.com at the time and had to run downtown to their print office to interview Bob Woodward on camera. Thornburg said Woodward was adamant about not letting the video go on the Web until his story was in print the next day. He embargoed the video even though the AP had stories on it and Newsweek had its own story on it. "He did not want the story to be told out of his control in any way."

Interesting that personal pride would come in the way of helping your own news organization get the story first OR at least help make up for it with quicker, more accurate and better coverage than the competition. Remember, that Woodward is one of The Post's top editors. It's just surprising to me.