Web offers compelling way to catch the news

Many companies founded during the dot-com boom were started on a single principle - that newspapers were on the way out and soon we'd get most of our news via the internet.

But the printing presses kept rolling and newspapers have even experienced a renaissance in some markets. Newspaper circulation and advertising have revived.

Still, the internet is an increasingly compelling source of news, with new technologies making it a news-friendly place. So-called RSS (really simple syndication) feeds and news aggregation websites are revolutionising the way we consume web-based news.

Among the most popular of the aggregators is Google News, a service from the company behind the world's most popular search engine, Google. The news service will "spider" the web for all the stories it can find on any given subject - sometimes returning hundreds of results.

It will link to sites that can only be accessed with a subscription but will warn you beforehand. Websites such as Yahoo.com and Altavista.com boast similar services and these aggregators are great for comparing rival media organisations' coverage of a story.

Most big news organisations have websites that are RSS-enabled, removing the need to constantly check the site for updates or to subscribe to news alerts that are emailed to you.

RSS is an XML-based web format for sorting content but has become a powerful tool for delivering news.

At Bloglines.com, you choose the RSS feeds you wish to receive. As new stories are posted, your news list is updated. No constant visits to news websites to check if they have been refreshed with the latest bulletins.

Once you've visited your desired site in Bloglines, the counter for new stories is reset to zero. The internet news mill is relentless and your Bloglines news list needs daily attention.

Locally, the website of the country's largest daily newspaper - nzherald.co.nz - offers email news bulletins twice a day. The first delivers links to the stories making the print edition, then an afternoon bulletin updates the day's developing stories.

As web traffic grows, nzherald.co.nz and other news websites are increasingly posting stories and photos exclusively to the web and directing readers of the paper to the website for more in-depth analysis.

An extensive revamp of news coverage on the Herald site has been accompanied by a major change in the way classified ads are presented. Job ads and property listings are now viewable as they would be in the paper and are searchable from 7.30am each day.

Scoop.co.nz offers useful nuggets such as lists of questions members of Parliament are lobbing at each other in the House - and their answers.

Go to state broadcaster tvnz.co.nz for free video feeds of certain news bulletins, while Stuff.co.nz aggregates the newspapers of media group Fairfax.

At NZcity.com, you can create your own homepage, with news and information customised to your tastes.

Telecom's website, Xtramsn.co.nz, has the advantage of being the arrival point for thousands of Kiwis who log out of their Hotmail email accounts. It's also a massive source of news and is particularly strong in sports, entertainment and breaking stories.

But for international issues, it is the large foreign news sites that offer the most. Many are still free to access, well designed, and their archives are searchable. The Guardian Unlimited (www.guardian.co.uk), online home to Britain's respected left-leaning broadsheet newspaper, is a great source of news, features, opinion and reviews.

The New York Times (www.nytimes.com) requires you to register but is also free to access.

The high-brow Arts & Letters Daily (www.aldaily.com) is a fantastic and free source of essays and features culled from the world's magazines and newspaper review sections.

The website of the Arab news organisation Al Jazeera (www.aljazeera.com) has become popular because its coverage of conflicts in the Middle East has provided a different slant to traditional western news agencies.

And the rise of the "weblog" - internet opinion and commentary journals - has given anyone with a point of view scope to articulate their own take on the news. Publicaddress.net is the best local site of this kind.

Sifting through a handful of well-chosen online news sites and credible weblogs involves more effort but is ultimately more rewarding than lounging in front of a TV that's playing rehashed satellite news feeds.

For many, however, reading formatted news stories online has nothing on browsing the pages of a newspaper. The website www.pressdisplay.com is trying to bridge the gap for the ink-and-paper faithful. It displays full-colour reproductions of the pages of 200 newspapers, usually a day after publication.

Google, meanwhile, is working on a search engine for video clips, which has exciting potential for news junkies. Initially, Google Video will allow users to search for digital still pictures and transcripts from their favourite TV sitcoms. But the plan is to extend this to full-motion clips of all kinds. A month-old 60 Minutes interview piece from the US, for example, may end up available to a world audience via a search engine.

Executed properly, it could be as revolutionary as the step radio news broadcasters such as the BBC World Service (www.bbcworldservice.com) took in broadcasting its signal digitally via the internet.

Other approaches to online media are also gaining momentum. The Vodafone Live mobile phone service gives access to news stories on the handset. Telecom offers a similar headline news service for its mobile users. As third-generation mobile services roll out and phones with high-resolution colour screens become common, watching video of the 6pm news as you inch forward in gridlocked Auckland traffic will become a reality.

Daily news is also being tailored to handheld computers.

You can, for example, download the Herald to your handheld. Sync it every morning to download the print version and update it through the day. The world's media is well and truly online.

As US media commentator Noam Chomsky said: "If we choose, we can live in a world of comforting illusion."

Or we can go online, inform ourselves and hopefully read enough to be able to separate the truth from the spin.