Internet Won't Eliminate Print Media.

• Position: Brief Article

The Internet is redrawing the media landscape and will for decades to come, but traditional media will not be left out of the picture, maintain two University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, journalism professors. Ed Mullins, chairman of the Journalism Department, and Jim Stovall, the founder of Dateline Alabama, the news website of the College of Communication and Information Sciences, agree that the future of the Web is still a mystery, but argue that, in the near future, it will serve more as a helpmate to traditional media.

"Nobody knows where the Web is taking us, but when it comes to journalism, old media will be dominant players in the new media game," Mullins believes. "Some ratings services report that most Americans go to sites operated by old-line media when looking for news on the Web."

Just as national old media dominate the Web at that level, local old media run mostly by newspapers and, to a lesser degree, by television stations dominate those markets. Is there a pattern here? Yes, say Mullins and Stovall. "At least in the first decade of the Web, newspaper companies dominate Web journalism," Mullins explains. "Why? They specialize in news, and that gives them an advantage. Sure, they dabble in entertainment. Most so-called sports news, for example, is entertainment. And they run tons of advertising and want more. But what bears the freight is news, and what most readers go to websites for is news and e-mail, a form of person-to-person news...