Online newspapers crap at reporting news

EVEN THOUGH online newspapers are nearly 10 years old, most of the big names still can't get out of the habit of a lifetime by shutting up shop and going down the Cheshire Cheese to sink a pint or three.

That's according to the Online Journalism Review, which reports that the 30 newspapers it monitored are lagging behind online pioneers like the supersoaraway Rogister INQUIRER.

Boffinettes and boffins at the University of Texas at Austin report that editors of the mainline US press seem baffled about how often online news should change.

According to the research, five out of the 30 large circulation newspapers leave their web sites practically untouched during the day, while an unlucky 13 just added breaking news daily.

The researchers used iMorph software to snap the newspapers' homepages every hour, and found that the most active online rags were Long Island Newsday, USA Today, the Houston Chronicle, the Chicago Tribune, the New York Times, the LA Times, and the Washington Post.

The full results of the survey are here. µ

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