The so-called Internet community can no more draw people together than it can lend a cup of sugar or watch your house when you're gone. Reporters, building solid personal rapport within their constituent communities, bring the news home to each person they contact. Reporters, editors and all connected with the newsroom, however, should not hesitate to use available technological resources that make them more accessible to their physical communities. New developments in communications technology such as the Internet give news agencies potential tools to involve more readers in the papers that matter to them. Creative solutions to the barriers of information, both in the world and in the newsrooms commissioned to cover it, can help the newspaper industry rebuild its toehold in the public's confidence into a foundation of popular power.
Some papers already reach out through informal on-line polls and surveys.
This reformation requires not necessarily repackaging newspapers for the Internet or glitzy marketing strategies, but reaffirming the values of basic integrity in the workforce and a tangible presence in the community. The deadline for entering the 2001 Holbein Memorial Scholarship competition is 1 December 2000.