By Tonie Auer

National Blog Chairwoman and DFW Chapter President

I read an interesting blog post on how the Internet and World Wide Web have impacted the way we cover the news. The idea is that a story is never done. It is ongoing because the Internet allows us to update news as it happens. There is never a finished product, put to bed like a magazine or newspaper. Instead, News is a Process.

I guess I can’t really argue with that. While I consider myself to be hip to the trends in my industry, I think I have begrudgingly gone there as a journalist. On my own personal blog, I’ve broken news stories from tips I’ve had. I’ve updated information as it has become available. I’ve written breaking news stories for the online version of monthly B2B pubs I’ve written for.

As a consumer of news, I enjoy being able to go to Yahoo News or my local TV station to find out what is the latest on an event. It is instant gratification. In this world, we all want that. I don’t want to wait until 5 p.m. to see what happened in a local trial. I want to know now and I can find out now via the Internet. It’s great.

It is also an adjustment for journalists. Is a story ever done anymore? I guess it depends on your medium. The bright side, however, is that we can gain the respect and confidence of our readers by keeping our website up to date on the latest happenings in our industry. Fear of them not reading the print issue three weeks later is a valid fear, but if we keep consumers of our product informed and looking to us as the premier source for up-to-date industry information, then this might not be such a bad thing.