After each crisis, many of those viewers defected back to the other TV networks. In the short history of Web news, news audiences have also fluctuated in the same way but still maintained a consistent upward trend, analysts say. In the case of the election, newspaper sites gained most of their new users among people at work. Those readers typically do not have the option of turning on the TV or radio for a news report, but they can click to a Web site for a quick hit on the latest electoral twist. Industry analysts say that to keep those readers, sites must add or update stories and graphics continuously.
Sites have to offer compelling reasons for their audience to come back.
The urgent pull to constantly augment a site may even divert resources away from in-depth investigations, something that major news organizations are best equipped to offer, said Paul Grabowicz, director of the New Media Program at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. And as dedicated Internet content providers and, more recently, retailers have painfully learned, large audiences do not necessarily mean profitable enterprises. So far, few if any newspaper Web sites have proved profitable. Part of the advantage that newspapers offer, but have yet to fully exploit, is the local angle, said Columbia's Pavlik. But that may be changing.