When I speak to community groups, a common question involves what I think the Internet will mean to newspapers. The Internet offers plenty of exciting, positive possibilities for serving the public. My biggest concern can be summed up in one word. It means the luck or good fortune to discover something by accident that turns out to be meaningful for you.
Newspapers deal a lot in serendipity.
Recently, for example, serendipity meant nuclear reactors in the Congo. As I munched on a deli sub, I read the main news section of The Philadelphia Inquirer. The African nation is so broke, it can no longer operate a research reactor at the University of Kinshasa. During the civil war, officials feared a rebel rocket would hit the reactor, causing a radiation leak. For me, the story was much more than an article about nuclear power in Africa.