The form of Online News In The Mainstream U.S. Press, 2001-2010

Extending a long-term study of three print newspapers from 1894 to 1994, the third in a series of studies shows electronic editions adapting to the online environment. The newspapers did not reinvent themselves online in 2001, instead reproducing the forms of print as a way to continue es-tablished relationships with readers. But readers were changing, and by 2005 the web editions had shifted the form from mapping content to man-aging the reading experience. Users encountered stories with more jumps that could display advertisements and found links that kept traffic inside the site. By 2010 the sites were less meager compared to the design of print editions. The form had moved toward the index as a metaphor for public life, in the style of web portals. The sites preferred content interac-tivity to interpersonal interactivity, continuing a long history of resisting in-novation and new techniques for public engagement.