How has the advent of the Internet affected news journalism as a whole?
It has changed journalism and our world in so many different ways – some good, some not so good. First of all, it has made the world a bit smaller. I grew up in Chicago. Now I can read the Chicago Tribune every day if I choose, despite living in the Washington, D.C. area. That may seem like a small thing for anyone who has grown up with the Internet, but think about this, when I first moved to D.C. in 1989, I was having the Tribune mailed to me. It reached me at least one, sometimes two days late. The 24/7 nature of the Internet has changed the notion of deadlines. USA TODAY may have its evening deadline, but not here at USATODAY.com. Every minute of every day is its own deadline. A story that appeared on the front page of today’s newspaper is old news for dot-com, maybe as old as 20 hours. That’s a lifetime online. The Internet is about nothing, if not communication. I used to write an NFL column for USATODAY.com. At the bottom of my column, I had a link to my email. Some of the great
