With technological advancement in the 1990s and an increase in the number of people who have access to computers and the internet, the world was a changing place, and quite early on newspapers realised that there were advantages to providing online news services.
The first online news site is believed to have been made by students at The University of Florida’s school of journalism in 1993. There was not an online news service from a major British newspaper until the Telegraph launched its website in 1994. At the time of the launch, the editor, Derek Biston, wrote: “Our brief was simple: explore this new medium; evaluate the usefulness of establishing the Telegraph as an online brand; learn about the technology and the commercial possibilities.” The Telegraph online was the only major online news service available for 3 years, until BBC online was launched in 1997.
BBC online merged several smaller BBC websites and formed a single site which was immediately praised for its construction and content. Since its launch the website has become one of the largest online news resources and has won several awards including a Webby for Best News site.
After the launch of the BBC’s website and the success of the Telegraph’s online news services the Guardian was the next of the major British newspapers to launch an online service. The Guardian Unlimited, launched in 1999, is a network of websites produced by The Guardian and provides users with access to all varieties of news; by 2001 it had 2.4 million unique users, making it the most popular newspaper site in the UK, at the time.
During the early 2000s the RSS feed was created which provides a constantly updated list of the most recent and popular stories at the time. This meant that the news reached readers much faster than before and helped make the internet the quickest source of current news.
The Daily Mail was the last of the major British papers to form a website, their service was launched in 2004 and tried to change the way viral media is used within the news. Their website utilised footage from camera phones and hand held video cameras making the news more current.
In the late 2000s technology once again changed the way newspapers manage their websites. With the advances in smartphones and wireless technology people can view news websites at any time. This has made the websites change how they present the news. The Telegraph has recently started producing an audio news feed which coincides with the latest news stories so people can listen to bulletins while travelling.
Recently The Times has introduced a subscription service and it looks as though other newspapers will follow soon. The need for the newspapers to do this shows the popularity of online news services, and how it is influencing newspaper sales. Some people think that this shows newspapers are soon to be replaced by online news sites.
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