From newspaper to online product: evolution or revolution?

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From newspaper to online

product: evolution or

revolution?

A case study of the adoption of digital

technologies related to the history and

identity of three Dutch newspapers

Jolien Pil S2412209 Master in Journalism Rijksuniversiteit Groningen Supervisor: Dr. M.P. Stevenson Second reader: Dr. A. Heinrich

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Chapter 1 Introduction

From newspaper to online news product

Journalistic stocking of shelves, copying, pasting and editing in a hounded 24 hours-newscycle, is a threat that becomes more and more dominant in newspaper journalism. The identity of newspapers will erode if we all use the same bricks to build the same houses (Laroes, 2012, translated from Dutch).

This statement is from Hans Laroes, the international media consultant and former chief editor of the Dutch public broadcaster NOS, and expresses the fear of the impact of technological conditions of the internet on the distinctiveness of newspapers. Previous research has suggested an increasing similarity between online news products (Wurf & Lauf, 2005). The theoretical argument goes that the similarities are caused by the technical

conditions of the internet (Dobek-Ostrowska, 2010, p.235). According to Barnhurst & Nerone (2001), digital technology reduces online newspapers distinctiveness: “While modern print newspapers have always maintained a specific identity recognizable in editorial

standpoint, the recruitment of authors or the selection of topics, their online outlets offer a potentially endless multiplication for the reader that makes it impossible for the web newspaper to impose a voice on a matter” (p.290). For this very reason Dutch newspaper publishers probably have not been so eager to embrace digital opportunities. And indeed, according to Oosterbaan & Wansink (2008) Dutch journalists have been worried that their newspaper’s identity will become less strong on the screen.

Newspaper publishers have historically not been so eager to embrace digital

opportunities also in international circles. Digital technologies have often been seen as having the power to radically transform the newspapers (Spyridou & Veglis, 2008). Though

recognizing that going digital is the way of the future, newspapers are adapting (Everett, 2011). The poor economic forecasts for the printing industry are pushing newspapers towards exploring the possibilities of the internet (Picard, 2003). Everett (2011) argues that as

competition continues to challenge newspapers, it is highly unlikely that newspapers will ever return to the way they were decades ago. Newspapers are finally coming to terms with the inevitable high-tech future (McKenna, 1993). Newspapers have gone from seeing technology as a rival, to embracing it as a companion and integrating so-called web-native media1forms

1_{web-native media are media formats that exist only on the Internet and media entities whose first}

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in their online news products. In other terms newspapers are undergoing a revolution. According to Adams (2008), adopting digital technology occurs mostly in a haphazard fashion to keep up with the industry forefront. By borrowing features of web-native media like blogs and database tools, newspapers are trying to make themselves internet savvy and compatible with whatever is already out there on the web.

Critics are concerned that this radical transformation of a newspaper into an online news product transforms or stands in contrast to the core identity of the newspaper (Wurf & Lauf, 2005). This concern derives from observations at various print papers and their online counterparts. If we look at newspaper pages, the length of the news articles have shortened, the number of info graphics have increased, and the designs have become more dynamic and fragmented (Cases i Associats, 2010): “We could say that printed newspapers have turned into printed Web pages” (Scolari, 2013, p.1428).

According to Boczkowski & Mitchelstein (2009) this makes sense because journalism has always been shaped by technology. For journalism, function has often followed form argues Pavlik (2001) meaning that journalism every time transforms radically with the introduction of a new technology. For example, Julius Caesar’s Acta Diurna in 59B.C. was only possible because of the existence of parchment. The first daily newspapers published in the 1600s were only possible because of the invention of both paper and the printing press. Real-time news over great distances only became possible in the 1800s with the invention of the electric telegraph. The Internet today is continuing to lead to a reinvention of how news is accessed, displayed, and presented (Pavlik, 2001, p.203). Consequently, previous research has often only focused on how technical conditions of the internet are changing the newspaper (Wurf & Lauf, 2005; Deuze, 2006).

Deuze’s research on digital culture (2006) however, suggested that online news products emerge not only by the technological conditions of the internet, but also by communicative practices online and offline, “shaping and being shaped by artifacts,

arrangements, and activities in ‘new’ and ‘old’ media” (p.63). This thesis therefore questions the idea that the transformation from newspaper to online news product is as a radical change as it has been claimed to be. It shows that this transformation is instead more gradual:

following Grazian (2005), we can say that while technologies are celebrated as revolutionary, how they shape and impact media has always been evolutionary. Where some have openly worried that the identities of newspapers are compromised online (Scolari, 2013), this thesis shows how online news products from traditional publishers reflect their history and identity.

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complexity of the media evolution from newspaper to online news product more deeply. Instead of looking at a linear succession of media; from vanishing newspaper to a renewed online product, I want to investigate the reflection of the newspaper brand considerations in the online news product. In seeking a language in which to talk about these online

transformations of newspapers, I have borrowed an idea from Naughton (2006) who expanded on Neil Postman's (1970) notion of media ecology –“That is to say, the study of media as environments” (Naughton, 2006, p.3). According to Naughton (2006) one can encounter the media landscape of institutions, organizations and forms as a huge garden where these different organisms interact with one another in parasitic or symbiotic relationships. By explaining the notion of media ecology in the theoretical framework of this paper, it is possible to illustrate the transformation of newspaper into online products and at the same time take into account the relationship between one medium (online news product) and the remaining media (paper counterpart), with special attention to the history and the profile of the newspaper.

Relevance and problem statement

For decades newspapers have held an important position in our society, and the

possibility exists that their online publications will uphold that position and eventually replace them:

Contrary to what many today suggest, new media and technologies will not bring about an end of mass media and “an end of journalism”. New media and practices will merge, but the basic characteristic of mass media will remain and even increase in social cultural influence (Griffin & Nordenstreng, 1999, p.33).

It is therefore important to monitor the new creations of our traditional print newspapers. Furthermore, newspapers have been ascribed an important function in democracy; they are a valuable way of reflecting and stimulating the public debate (Schudson, 2008, p.13). The content and the form of the news has and will help determine our images of society. As we know from traditional mass media research, conventions of form determine which stories are told and how they are told. By doing so they determine how we experience the world

(Broersma, 2007).

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power to shape the content and media experience, but will also have the power to transform or stand in contrast to the core identity of newspapers and their publishers (Wurf & Lauf, 2005). In order to determine what these affordances of the online news products are and find out more about them, the following research question is proposed: How are newspapers adopting web-native features online, and to what extent can their online news products be understood in relation to their individual identities and publicly stated motivations?

This question is especially interesting in the Dutch case since Dutch newspapers have always had a strong identity that distinguished them from one another. The newspapers were guided before by politics, ideology or religion (Van Hoof, 1996), and have nowadays still strong roots in this tradition. This makes the Dutch case interesting to show how a newspaper’s identity might be expressed through an online product, and to question how the adoption of web-native elements alters the newspaper’s identity.

Outline

This paper will analyze the evolving set of online newspaper practices in relation to the newspaper’s history and publically stated motivations. In order to address the above-formulated research questions, the presented research is based on a two-step approach: a literature review and a case study of three major Dutch newspapers De Telegraaf, De Volkskrant and NRC-Handelsblad. In the first chapter I begin by discussing media ecology origins and how it shows evolution within a media environment. This is followed by a more practical concept to show evolution in media ecosystems: remediation. The theory of remediation suggests a two-way process in which newspapers translate their product to the new medium while also ‘borrowing’ web-specific elements, thus ensuring continuity while also adapting to the new environment. This is followed by an introduction on the Dutch newspaper landscape, which will function as the context for the case study for this thesis. Chapter 3 describes the method. The method for the case study consists of two parts. The first part consists of a macro-analysis that studies which non-traditional (web-native) features are taken up by newspapers in their online products. This is a content analysis that focuses on manifest content (in this case: features). The second part consists of a micro-analysis that analyzes how each newspaper uses its particular "key feature." This is a qualitative content analysis that uses deductive coding. The results will be reported in Chapter 4 followed by a discussion set out in Chapter 5. Chapter 5 summarizes the results and describes the

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stated motivations. Furthermore it describes the contribution to the study of media ecology studies. Finally, Chapter 6 is a conclusion containing the limitations of the study, and suggestions for further research.

Chapter 2 Theoretical Framework

The media ecosystem: an introduction

Although many see the decline of print newspapers as revolutionary change, the transition to online news products may also be understood as evolution within the media ecosystem.

Rather than assume a radical dissociation of the new from the old, we need to explore how new media forms take part in established social structures (Matheson, 2004, p. 461).

Following the idea of Matheson (2004), this thesis focuses on the adoption of the ‘new’, the practice of online news products, into the ‘old’, the traditional news produced by traditional newspapers. As suggested above, a new media form is being adjusted and integrated into traditional newspaper production, and as we know from popular discourse, the explosive growth in online newspapers has increased the fear that this is the end of traditional

newspapers. However, instead of a decline in the field of traditional newspapers, one can see a parasitic relationship between online products (blogs, video etc.) and conventional

journalism, observed journalism scholar John Naughton. He looks at them from a media ecology perspective. This means that he encounters the media landscape of institutions, organizations and forms as a huge garden where these different organisms interact with one another in parasitic or symbiotic relationships. For example, within a media ecosystem it is seen how newspapers interact with their environment, and is seen how evolution takes place through technology within the newspaper industry. Naughton (2006) for example, described a blog as a new organism that has arrived in a media ecosystem and existing organisms, such as newspapers, are trying to accommodate towards it. They do this by integrating online features such as blogs in their newspaper products. But how this symbiotic

relationship is unfolding between online and paper newspapers is still unclear (Naughton, 2006).

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concerned with these so-called ‘wipe-outs'. For example, when a news bulletin first appeared on the television, the end of the newspaper was predicted. Or when the CD-ROM became the new information carrier, the end of the printed book was predicted, and so on. Many traditions of media and cultural studies are more interested in the loss (the extinction of the newspaper for example) (Boczkowski, 2004; Clark, 2008.). The study of Steensen (2008), for example, focuses on the emergence of new genres in online news products and how online news

products in this way differentiate more and more from traditional newspapers. The differences between old media and new media are the very essence of his studies.

A more nuanced view on this matter comes from Boczkowski (2004), who suggests that new media emerge from merging existing infrastructures with novel technical

capabilities. Another highly nuanced view comes from Allen (2006). In his empirical research, he focuses on the interplay between print and online newspapers. By providing a diverse range of examples, he shows how the forms, practices and epistemologies of online news are gradually becoming conventionalized. The two last examples of research are coming much closer to a media ecology perspective in which one is more concerned about how equilibriums between old and new media in the media ecosystem are created and maintained. However, research focused on the potential balance between newspaper and online paradigms is scarce (Naugthon, 2006). My approach therefore is to put

transformation in the newspaper industry in a media ecologic perspective. For this reason, the next section elaborates further on this concept.

History of media ecosystem studies

The study of media as environments is not new and doesn’t originally belong to Naughton (2006) and Anderson (2012). In the media ecosystem new media comes and goes and one can picture it as a huge garden where living organism interact with one another and their

environment. Naughton (2006) explains: “Organisms prey on one another; compete for nutrients; have parasitic or symbiotic relationships; wax and wane: prosper and decline. And an ecosystem is never static; it's in a state of perpetual ferment” (Naughton, 2006, p.3). The origins of the term ecosystem are biological, wherein an ecosystem is defined as a community in which living organisms interact with both one another and their environment (Naughton, 2006).

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which argued that in high school English should be replaced by teaching about media ecology. According to Postman (1970), technological change is ecological which means it changes everything. Postman:

Media ecology looks into the matter of how media of communication affects human perception, understanding, feeling, and value; and how our interaction with media facilitates or impedes our chances of survival (Postman, 1970 as cited in Strate, 2002). Postman’s concept of media ecology is derived from the theory of McLuhan (1964)

who argued that our personal and social environment is created by different

communication technologies. In McLuhans book ‘Understanding Media’ he argues that media are the extensions of men. The birth of different media, like television and the internet, have affected the way how we interact and communicate. McLuhan: “All media work us over completely; they are so pervasive in their personal, political, economic, aesthetic, psychological, moral, ethical, and social consequences that they leave no part of us untouched, unaffected and unaltered” (McLuhan & Fiore, 1967, p. 26). This radical point of view has caused McLuhan –and therefore also Neil Postman-to have been regularly criticized of technological determinism. Taking these concerns into mind, it didn’t stop new media scholars (Anderson, 2012; Naughton, 2006) to show renewed interest in the terrain of media ecologies. The renewed interest in media

ecologies reflects a broader revival of McLuhanist media theory in the 1990s (e.g. Bolter and Grusin, 1999; Manovich, 2001). The emergence of the internet provoked the renewed interest. Researchers are curious about its impact on society (Anderson, 2012).

Remediation and Web-native form

To make sense of the complex evolution in the media ecosystem the concept of remediation will be introduced in this section: the process of integrating old media forms into new media forms. It can be helpful in laying bare the blurring process that occurs when newspapers turn into online news products.

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remediation one should realize that it is built on the perception of McLuhan: “the content of any medium is always the content of another medium. The content of writing is speech, just as the written word is the content of print, and print is the content of the telegraph”

(McLuhan, 1964, p.24). McLuhan means that content is inseparable from the medium. It is not the content that matters, but the medium, the ‘carrier’ of the content, which is the

message. This means that new media do not replace prior media but modify or obscure them. The printing press does not replace handwriting, but alters the way it is used.

According to Bolter and Grusin, who revived McLuhan's idea, remediation is not limited to digital media but can be seen throughout media history. Photography remediates paintings, and cinema remediates theater and photography (Bolter & Grusin, 2000, p.15). Media refashions older media and the older media refashion themselves to keep up with the new media (Bolter & Grusin, 2000).

New media are doing exactly what their predecessors have done: presenting themselves as refashioned and improved versions of other media, digital visual media can best be understood through the ways in which they honor, rival and revise linear perspective painting, photography, film, television, and print (Bolter & Grusin, 2000, p.14).

Although the theory of Bolter and Grusin is mainly focused on visual technologies, we can use their concept of remediation for understanding what is currently occurring in the media ecosystem. The blurring of genre and form of different media, also described as the process of remediation above, are always part of the historical development of media and are thus a central process in the media ecosystem. ‘New’ media are in a way thus not new. New media do not replace prior media but modify or obscure them like McLuhan argued.

However, there is another school of thought that sees a sharp distinction between traditional media forms and new media forms. For example, Miel & Faris (2008) make a clear difference between legacy media forms and web-native media forms. Legacy media are “media originally distributed using a pre-Internet medium (print, radio, television) and media companies whose original business was in pre-internet media, regardless of how much of their content is now available online” and web-native media “media formats that exist only on the Internet and media entities whose first distribution channel is the Internet” (Miel & Faris, 2008, p.3).

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the audience by instantly voicing reactions, additions, or corrections to stories. This leads to audience contributed content. According to Miel & Faris (2008) this is a huge part of the appeal of web-native media forms and was what initially distinguished them from traditional media and the legacy media formats.

Miel & Faris (2008) name three other hallmarks that distinguish web-native media from legacy media. Firstly, low barriers to entry of digital media have led to an explosion of non-professional content on topics broadly defined as “soft” news (also called “features” or “lifestyle reporting”). Secondly, web-native media offer space for audience-contributed content like personal reviews or blogs. Thirdly, there is space made for commentary, analysis, or summaries of current topics and events, drawing on media sources and/or personal

experience thanks to the immediacy of the web.

New media forms, like web-native formats, are distinguishable from traditional media by three characteristics: digital, multimediality and interactivity. They are media which are both integrated and interactive and also use digital code at the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries. These three characteristics make new media clearly different from old media, is the conclusion from Van Dijk (1991) and also from Manovich (2001). My approach is to not focus on these differences but to find a balance – to see how new forms, formats and affordances become involved in the process of remediation.

The theory of remediation suggests a two-way process in which newspapers translate their product to the new medium while also ‘borrowing’ web-specific elements, thus ensuring continuity of the ‘old’ medium, while also adapting to the new environment. Since

remediation is a way for a medium to define itself by borrowing already borrowed or reused features from older media, it is a useful concept for identifying a medium’s formal specificity: that what differentiates them from other existing media.

Furthermore, by analyzing the process of remediation, one can not only understand a certain aspect of the media ecosystem like the creation of online newspapers, but also detect change in the practice of journalism. Every time, with the introduction of a new

communication technology, when the process of remediation starts again, the potential challenges for journalism practices and norms have been called into question (Haas, 2005).

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Blogs and beyond: the success of web-native forms and organizations

The most well-known form of a web-native media form is probably the blog. A famous example of a successful bloggers platform is the Huffington post, started in March 2005. Initially, the site drew contributions from A-list celebrities and high-powered friends. But soon the site opened its doors to a much larger variety of bloggers from across the political and cultural spectrum. None of the bloggers were paid, but many thousands of posts were contributed (Sarno, 2011).

Not only blogs have had success. Media formats of the third category -commentary, analysis, or summaries of current topics and events, drawing on media sources and/or personal experience – are also booking success online. For example, the initiative of de Correspondent; an online news site containing background information and analyses published by an online-only publication was started in the Netherlands in 2013. In one year they had 25.000 paying subscribers. These are only two observations, but the same trend is also seen in neighboring countries like the United Kingdom: “The BBC is the country's most popular news website but Yahoo is second and MSN news is larger than the Daily Mirror's site (a British traditional newspaper’s website). A growing number of consumers get their news and information from new media sites such as Facebook, which now accounts for one in every six page visits in the UK” (Robinson, 2014). We must therefore conclude that web-native media forms (like blogs and other sorts of new media content) are flourishing and competing for the attention of the online audience. The most optimistic observers of the internet see that the rise of web-native media forms the basis of an unstoppable democratic revolution: “In their vision, empowered citizens are seizing control of the political agenda from the corporate handmaidens of mainstream media, forcing the powers-that-be to listen to the true voice of the people” (Miel & Faris, 2008, p.4).

As a result the new forms are presented as the journalism of the future (Bird, 2009). The success of these web-native media formats haven’t occurred unnoticed at traditional media companies. These pre-internet companies, the so-called legacy media, try to include a variety of Web 2.0 tools, including RSS feeds, online videos, podcasts or blogs (Miel & Faris, 2008) to compete with popular web native media forms.

The appearance of print papers online

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profession. If we look at the American situation, where most print newspaper research has been done, we see that newspaper readership in America already flattened out in the 1980s. In the '70 's more than 90% of the readers were still reading a newspaper every week. Since the 1990s only 75% of the adults were reading a newspaper (Meyer, 2009, p.18). The same trend can be seen in Europe. A recent report indicated serious problems such as declining

employment, value added and circulation figures (Joint Research Centre, 2012, p.87 as cited in Scolari, 2013, p.1428).

According to Adams (2008) the most important reason for print newspapers to go out there is to keep up with technological developments and not to be left disadvantaged. As a consequence pre-internet media are confronting the challenge of reinventing themselves for the online world.

The adoption of web-native forms

The first online newspaper appeared in 1995. In the beginning online newspapers didn’t really bring different news than their paper counterparts and were hesitant in adopting internet

features like interactive elements (Domingo et al. 2008, Hermida & Thurmans, 2008).

However, from the year 2000 onwards the legacy media started approaching more aggressive strategies to get the attention of the online audience. Since then newspapers have been

experimenting with adopting different approaches to online technology (Wurf & Lauf, 2005, p.16-18). Various critics have argued that publishers should somehow embrace digital

opportunities to save the newspaper industry from stagnation (Bardoel et al., 1993; Boczkowski, 2004; Wurf & Lauf, 2005). Critics argue that online newspapers should provide what traditional media fail to serve by developing Internet-specific features such as two–way communication, searchable databases, real-time data transmission, hyperlinking and multimedia presentation. (Chyi & Lasorsa, 2002; Wurf & Lauf, 2005).

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or the setting of specific targets (Adams, 2008).

Findings of Adams (2008) indicate that it often occurs in a relatively haphazard fashion in order to keep up with the times and industry forefront. It doesn’t seem likely that choices are made in order to serve the reader better. Or are coming from an ideological prejudice like for example being part of the basis of an unstoppable democratic revolution as has been said during the times of the first emergence of the web-native media forms.

However, the underlying reason for developing a digital strategy at a print newspaper doesn’t seem to want to be part of this so called democratic media revolution: outlets want to expand the potential growth opportunities for the newspaper and bring in new advertising revenue. In addition, Wurf & Lauf (2005) found that the overall availability of web-native media forms at different online newspapers are in general the same in Europe. According to them this is related to the internet penetration and population of a country and the

technological developments of that respective country. The diversification in technological specifications between the newspapers in Europe were not significant (Wurf & Lauf, 2005).

To the best of my knowledge not one of these findings address how cultural factors such as a newspaper’s individual history or identity could play a role in adopting new media technologies. Rather, the research on online journalism has been dominated by a discourse of technological innovation dominated by the terms hypertext, multimedia and interactivity (Steensen, 2011, p.311).

However, there are clear indications out there that the identity and the core values of a newspaper are also playing a major role in adopting new media technologies. Look for example at newspapers like the Guardian and the Sunday Times which are paying a lot of attention to adjusting their website to their existing newspaper brand: The online offering must be true to the print product are newspaper publishers, argue Cole and Harcup (2009, p.102). In the findings of Cole and Harcup is presented that newspaper publishers think that more brand awareness should be gained by the online edition and in return strengthen the position of the print paper. According to Cole and Harcup (2009) the word ‘brand’ therefore dominates the debate in management and newspaper executive circles in their current common search towards a successful online product and saving their print products. The editors of leading newspapers like the Guardian, Telegraph, Sun and Mail frequently

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& Harcup, 2009, p.102).

As said before some scholars have argued that when it concerns integrating web-native forms, sooner or later adopting all these different web-native forms will be implemented by print newspapers (Chyi & Lasorsa, 2002; Wurf & Lauf, 2005, p.18). The truth is according to this group of thinkers, that journalism has indeed always been shaped by technology

(Boczkowski & Mitchelstein, 2009, p.566). It should be noted, however, that it is possible to take on a very different perspective, one that puts existing cultural and social practices at the center. Deuze (2007) points out that technology is not an independent factor influencing journalistic work from outside, but must be seen in terms of implementation, and how it extends and amplifies previous ways of doing things (Deuze, 2007, p.153). Besides such deterministic explanations tend to ignore that media are autonomous entities argues Scolari (2013): “When we write that a medium in danger of extinction will do whatever it can to adapt, we are not considering media as autonomous entities” (Scolari, 2013, p.1422). The focus shouldn’t be on the extinction of newspaper but what elements of different media are given prominence in a new context, and why. The next section will give an overview of the variety of elements that are integrated at online newspapers.

Categories of web-native forms at online newspapers

Two-way communication, the concept of interactivity is probably the most frequently named in the context of internet features at online newspapers (Wurf & Lauf, 2005, p.18). Content interactivity refers to the content which producers empower users to select their own content. Content interactivity represents the characteristic of the internet news: the nonlinear reading of news in contrast with the linear narrative model of print articles (Wurf & Lauf, p.18). Search engines and hyperlinks are tools that are used to increase the content interactivity. Hyperlinks increase the supply of information and make it easier to find information for the reader. Moreover, by sharing information papers will also start battling with other online competitors. Hyperlinks are used to establish relationships with other organizations, sharing information and acknowledging competitors (Weber, 2012 p.190). The use of hyperlinks transform the traditional way of bringing news. By the use of hyperlinks, everything is

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different form (Bruns, 2003; Singer, 2001). The gatewatching practice is often compared to gatekeeping which refers to the important role of journalists to select “…whether or not to admit a particular news story to pass through the “gates” of a news medium into the news channel” (McQuail, 1994, p.213).

Since journalists are more interfered with the practice of gatewatching whereby one keeps a constant watch at the gates (Bruns, 2003; Singer, 2001), the chance to create a more homogeneous media environment is greater, than creating the ideal typical desired enriched media ecosystem.

Next to content interactivity (hyperlinking), interpersonal interactivity is a frequently used element at online newspapers. Interpersonal interactivity expresses the logic of a

‘normal’ conversation, like communication between users and journalist. Tools that facilitate interpersonal interactivity per excellence are comment sections under articles or the provision of chat rooms. Also other tools like display email addresses of journalist, display letters to the editor and provision of forums.

Besides integration two-way communication, the implementation of multimedia is an commonly used element at online newspapers. Multimedia is defined here as the combination of text, audio and video in one outlet (Deuze, 2003). And the adoption of social media needs to be named in this context as well. Herewith is meant the wide adoption of blogs, facebook and twitter at the websites.

Furthermore, traditional news media organizations initiated a wide array of adaptive strategies using the same core technologies as social media: “including the deployment of robust web portals, the integration of user-generated content initiatives, the formation alliances and partnerships with blogs and user-generated content sites” (Weber, 2012, p.188).

Consequences of adopting web-native media forms

When a newspaper starts adding hyperlinks, interactivity and multimedia, they do not just add extra value to their online news product: change in the newspaper industry is inevitable (Pavlik, 2001; Preston, 2004). Pavlik (2001) points out that as a consequence of adopting web-native media forms the way journalists do their work is changing, the structure of the newsroom and news industry is undergoing a fundamental transformation and new media is causing a transformation in the relationships between and among news organizations, journalists and their audiences.

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technologies, newspapers have had to continue a process of refinement, increasing their function as arbiters of taste, opinion and identity to such an extent that their news function seems almost entirely obsolete. The newspapers have to refine itself because of the increasing competition from other online media formats out there. Preston (2004) builds his arguments on what happened in the past with the advent of radio. “As the radio consolidated its influence on communities of listeners who tuned in for the latest news, so the newspapers turned

increasingly to various forms of product and even medium differentiation in order to retain their readerships.” All newspapers subsequently had to redefine themselves. So with the advance of the internet as a new media technology, this process of redefining starts again (Preston, 2004).

British scholars have argued that the development of media technology, such as the internet, for newspapers leads to the rise of feminized content, in the Daily Mail, and developments in lifestyle and consumer journalism in a daily elite newspaper, the Guardian (Franklin, 2009, p.24). Preston (2004) sees this as proof of the continuous refinement process. Subsequently from here follows the idea that the internet and other digital technologies transform or stand in contrast to the core identity of newspapers and their publishers (Wurf & Lauf, 2005, p.2). This concern derives from observations at print newspapers and their online counterparts. If we look at newspaper pages, the length of the news articles has been

shortened, the number of infographics have increased, and the designs have become more dynamic and fragmented (Cases i Associats, 2010): “We could say that printed newspapers have turned into printed Web pages" (Scolari, 2013, p.1428). Alongside the shortened articles and revamped design, a number of other aspects of the new medium seem to infringe on the traditional look and feel of newspapers. For example, some publishers choose for a reverse-chronological order or the use of hyperlinks to guide the readers towards another place on the web (Herring et al., 2005; Scolari, 2013) just like is done in a blog.

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features.

Besides, the concerns about transforming the identity of the newspaper derives also from critics who are concerned about a growing uniformity in the design of online news products and their adopted web-native media forms (Steensen, 2011). However, the changes brought by e-newspapers have not been sudden, uniform, or synchronic (Spyridou & Veglis, 2008). A case study of 3 newspapers in Sweden by Ihlström & Henfridsson (2005) showed us that

newspapers could also use different form strategies to distinguish themselves but at the same time be a reflection of the norms and values of the paper counterpart. For example, one of the newspapers tried to distinguish itself from the two other newspapers by using a completely different layout. In this way a unique identity was built. However Ihlström & Henfridsson

(2011) found out that the investigated newspapers pursued different form strategies, the newspapers still showed resemblance with the brand considerations of the paper counterparts. Only the layout of one of the newspapers didn’t resemble the printed counterpart. And in this way touched upon the core identity of the respective newspaper. This case study showed that the consequences of the integration of web-native media forms could touch upon the

resemblance of the paper counterpart, but could also strengthen the relationship with the paper counterpart.

Adopting web-native forms: the Dutch media landscape as a cultural context

As written down before in the theoretical framework, adopting web-native forms by

newspapers may not only be caused by the technological conditions of the internet, but could also be influenced by other factors in which history and locality play a role (Boczkowski, 2005, p.4). Therefore it is needed to sketch the cultural context in which the newspapers have established themselves in order to understand what is happening with the Dutch newspapers online.

Changing society: pillarization and after

At the beginning of the 20century Dutch society was primarily divided along religious and ideological lines until (roughly) the sixties (Hemels & Schneider 1979; Wurf & Lauf, 2005). The division was based on religion and ideology and can be called the most distinctive characteristic of the Dutch media landscape. This division is also known as the so-called ‘pillarization.’ This term is used to address the division in Dutch society into three

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group. Each of these groups had their own broadcaster, newspaper, sports club, school and so on. These newspapers wrote for a niche audience: ‘their own people’ One reported on

political issues inside the respective pillar, and it was unusual to write articles from a different perspective then the ideological point of view of the respective political party where that the newspaper was aligned to (Wurf & Lauf, 2005).

Pillarization was deeply rooted in the Dutch newspaper industry. It even kept the popular press in the Netherlands away. Meanwhile, in other parts of the world newspaper industries were expanding quite differently: in America and the UK the popular press was rising during the same time period. There was no market for that in the Netherlands because the newspapers were divided per pillar (Bakker, 1991, p.62-64).

However, the system didn’t continue to hold strong forever. In the late sixties and early seventies the pillarization started to break up (Lijphart, 2008). Influenced by cultural changes in Europe like individualization and economic progress, Dutch society was

transforming. As a consequence, many newspapers started to lose readers to non-pillarized competitors. Soon the newspapers tried to distant themselves from their pillarized origins (Elsherbiny, 2014).A good example is De Volkskrant, a catholic newspaper that broke free of their catholic identity. Their catholic focus disappeared and a new progressive policy for the newspaper was made (Bardoel, Vos, Van Vree and Wijfjes, 2001).

There is still, however, remnants of pillarization in Dutch society. This made evident I research about the newspaper use of Dutch political party members (Brants in Bardoel etc. 2002; Krouwel, 2008). From both studies it seems apparent that there is a relation between politicans of a certain party and the former aligned party ideology of particular newspaper. De Telegraaf for example, was the most widely read by members of the VVD, the liberal party, and almost not read by other political parties. Likewise, de Volkskrant, was the most widely read newspaper (45%) in the PVDA, the labor party.

So, though breaking free of their ‘religious’ pillars, the national newspapers can still be distinguished by their affiliate former party ideology of the newspapers. Although

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of the past. After all, according to Puutinen, Thomas and Pantti (2008), the legacy of

pillarization in the Dutch media system is still apparent through the continuing identification of newspapers with their traditional communities.

Changing communications

The communication revolution that started in the eighties, transformed the Dutch media landscape deeply and also led to an increase of newspapers competitors and the launch of the first newspaper websites. The new technological devices made it possible for new actors to offer a more diverse range of news. This was further pushed forward by the stagnation of the Dutch newspaper market, like internationally which was also occurring. The circulation of the newspaper decreased in recent years by almost 25 percent (from 2004 in 1460 to 1080 in 2013) as explained in the research report of Stimuleringsfonds voor de Pers (2007) (a Dutch research group). Oosterbaan and Wansink (2008) write that the advent of internet has robbed the Dutch newspapers of their monopoly of writing news texts. As a consequence the content of newspapers have become less and less a category. It appears online next to internet news and press publishers. As a consequence, the identity of the newspaper is less strong on the screen then before the arrival of the internet. The relationship with the reader became more loose, and the total package (the journalistic agenda, the program, the division and content of the newspaper) is less clear, argue Oosterbaan and Wansink (2008).

However, the most newspaper publishers realized that internet was a development that shouldn’t be left out of their future organization. The first Dutch newspaper that launched a website was ‘het Eindhovens Dagblad’ in 1995 and ‘het NRC-Handelsblad’ (Oosterbaan & Wansink (2008). Oosterbaan and Wansink (2008) wondered if this had led to any new Dutch journalistic conventions. At the biggest newspapers Oosterbaan and Wansink (2008)

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The changing reader

Another point of transformation that needs to be addressed here is the changing interest of the Dutch reader. Newspapers recognize a general shift in the attention of people for the public sphere. The interest in the collective case has decreased according to Oosterbaan & Wansink (2008). They argue that the main cause is the increased prosperity and the consequential individualization in the Netherlands. The more earnings raise, the less Dutch citizens sought refuge in society organizations.

The interest in collective resources, collective action and collective organization has been exchanged for an orientation on the market to suit individual actions. Interest in politics and therefore also for the news coverage about it, declines, and instead the interest in subjects that have to do with the private sphere have been raising more awareness such as health, emotions, consumer affairs and career planning. Besides, the attention for the private lives of politicians, artists and sportsmen grew.

In the next section three profiles of Dutch newspapers are in depth described. A special interest will focus on the development of their online products since those often were subscribed an important role in the new strategy of newspapers to conquer the market again. This knowledge will help us later onwards to discover a potential relationship between the publically stated motivations of the newspaper and the specific forms taken on by their websites. As such, below can be found some background information on the profile and mission statements of the newspapers of interest.

Profiles of Volkskrant, NRC Handelsblad and Telegraaf

De Telegraaf

In 1893 De Telegraaf was established. It is the biggest and oldest newspapers of the Netherlands. Although De Telegraaf was not specifically focused on trade, the newspaper contained from the beginning on news about trade, industry and shipping (Small, 2008, p.18). Like in the first years, De Telegraaf financial and economic news plays an important role in the newspaper. In the fifties and sixties, there was a separate page for example -without a separate title -for this kind of reporting, later, this is the section entitled ‘Finance and economics’. As of April 1975 there was even a separate booklet: ‘The Financial Telegraph’ (DFT). And other some newspapers were founded. This also includes, Telesport, de Vaarkrant (boats) and Woonkrant (living) (Small, 2008, p 18.).

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Wolf (2009), who wrote an extensive history of the newspaper, this image of a far-right newspaper was further amplified in the eighties by the harsh anti-Labour rate and the layout of the front page that every day was a great indictment of the Hague authorities. However, Mariette Wolf notes that the headlines become more neutral from the nineties onwards. According to the current editor in chief Sjoerd Paradijs De Telegraaf is nowadays a neutral newspaper: “We are a neat newspaper and not a right-wing newspaper. We cannot afford to bind to a splinter party and the VVD . We are a mass newspaper. We reach some two and a half million readers daily with the printed newspaper and another million to our site”

(Verbraak, 2009). According to Paradijs De Telegraaf is the newspaper of the masses. From here also the motto stems: ‘being the newspaper of an awake Netherlands’ which is also put on the front of the newspaper. De Telegraaf grew out to be the biggest popular newspaper in the Netherlands.

De Telegraaf grew also out to be the biggest commercial newspaper in the Netherland (Amerongen & Brouwer, 1995). The former chief-editor Johannes Olde Kalter was a big fan of further commercialization of the newspaper. He stated: “I know that at some newspaper editors and commercial parties barely talk to each other, but with it goes very nice together, without compromising on the quality, reliability and independence of the editors”

(Amerongen & Brouwer, 1995).

To keep up with digital developments, De Telegraaf launched a website in 1996. The exuberant layout style of the newspaper can be seen also on the website. Charles de Vroede, editor Internet Telegraph: “That style is part of our newspaper. You should see that it is a Telegraph site” (Sanders, 2000). In 2004 something really different from the paper edition emerged on the website. De Telegraaf.nl starts with broadcasting videos on the internet. Their aim is, according to the information on their website, to provide more politics, sports,

entertainment and finance news: in text, in images, with their own TV news bulletin and, where possible, with a live report. De Telegraaf is working for this new service along with Reuters and the Internet TV company FTV. The chief editor in 2008, Marianne Zwagerman, described this new strategy as: from text and images towards images and sound. With these words Zwagerman explained the transformation that her news company was going through: "Video is playing a key role in our digital ambitions. The consumer is changing, moving images are the future. We want to determine the topic of the day. This we want to accomplish by translating the power of our newspaper into television” (Benjamin, 2008).

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broadcasting system. In 2009 De Telegraaf announced to begin their own broadcast on national television called: ‘Wakker Nederland.’ Wakker Nederland will be supported by mother company De Telegraaf and Telegraaf Media Groep (the publisher of Telegraaf). The founder is Telegraaf chief editor Sjuul Paradijs. According to Paradijs: “it is high time that the common sense of 2,55 million Telegraaf readers gets a chance in the public broadcast system” (Bode, 2009). Consequently, the video content was also used for the newspaper’s website Telegraaf.nl. De Telegraaf’s website is full of video content from this broadcaster in particular what makes De Telegraaf the only newspaper in the Netherlands with video content made by themselves. The question is only how long the public broadcaster shall continue to exist

because the Dutch media law forbids newspaper support by public funding of the government.

De Volkskrant

De Volkskrant was founded in 1919 as a weekly newspaper published by the Catholic labor movement. In the following years the magazine was published every day, and finally from 1921 it became officially a daily newspaper (Gessel, 1990, p.12-15). Nowadays it is one of the three biggest quality newspapers in the Netherlands. The official identity statement of De Volkskrant in 1975 is still leading: “De Volkskrant is a progressive newspaper, that has to speak up for the weakest and need to strive for encouraging developments that are promising a more human society” (Mooij, 2011, p.70).

Originally, the newspaper presented itself as a left-wing platform, supporting the catholic ideology until the ‘ontzuiling’ (depillarization) had set in. In the mid-sixties the newspapers’ subtitle "Catholic newspaper for the Netherlands” disappeared. As a consequence the newspaper lost her catholic character. When the radical seventies and eighties came to their end, the circulation of De Volkskrant started growing each year, developing itself into a comprehensive quality newspaper. Also, they have been emphasizing that they want to focus on publishing about culture and science. De Volkskrant in 1981 was the very first newspaper in the Netherlands that produced a special science section (Daldrup, 2000).

When the 'liberal nineties' began they want to differentiate themselves more from other newspapers. The way to go was in the eyes of the newspaper makers including more diversity in one newspaper by writing about new topics and differentiating with forms. So the

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decided in 2006 to build a newsroom where newspaper editors, website television and radio would be integrated as a whole. The first steps to make a website were already set at that time from (the initiative for a website has started in 1996). However, the newspaper online was a copy of the paper counterpart and couldn’t be called innovative at all. The at the moment chief editor Pieter Broertjes, transformed the online policy rigorously. After a trip to Japan, were he learned all about new digital technologies, Broertjes came back with the conviction that digital information was becoming the leading standard for the next decade. ‘After his return he had been preaching the multimedia strategy as it was the bible itself’ (Mooij, 2011, p.267). He argued that after five year De Volkskrant was supposed to be a fast and swinging multimedia company referring to threat scenarios about a one-way ticket to the press museum if not pursuing a new digital strategy.

A part of the newborn ambition was to make high gripped TV and radio. However, the plan for a radio station perished soon because publisher PCM in 2006 purchases another news station. And the video activities were too expensive in the end. The chief editor at that time, Pieter Broertjes, had initially in 2005 directed at persuading an ambitious multimedia policy. Concerning this ambitious policy, this one certainly had to be adjusted because the internet activities didn’t contribute to welcoming benefits for the organization as a whole (Mooij, 2011, p.310).

The economic crisis in the autumn of 2008 forced De Volkskrant to stop with the multimedia activities. “The former flagship, the newsroom of the future turned into a

newsroom from the past” (Mooij, 2011, p.330). The stop of these activities have not been very well received in the circle of bloggers and internet journalists. The main responsibilities for the current chief editor, Philip Remarque, were being reduced as a consequence. He became responsible for the newspaper and not for the digital newsroom. After the stop of the

multimedia activities the direction of the newspaper, stated Remarque, will still go on the same foot: “We go left and right, and are looking for nuance.” In the meanwhile, he wants to continue creating the image that the newspaper delivers neutral rapports on events. “We want to be the guide of a new generation of open, liberal Dutch citizens developing to voice the modern life” (Mooij, 2011, p.331).

NRC-Handelsblad

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challenging, indispensible). This is in line with the history of the newspaper. The motto of the newspaper since their foundation in 1970 has always been Lux et Libertas – (Light and Liberty), where light refers to the Enlightenment and freedom to the liberal Dutch statesman Thorbecke (Van der Hoeve, 2010). NRC-Handelsblad (NRC) sees itself as a newspaper of liberal persuasion. NRC has always made a newspaper for highly educated people and wants to be a carrier of reliable information. Their focus is on economics, politics and culture with a special focus on foreign news: “NRC is a neutral, liberal newspaper that the freedom of the individual to state, from too much government intervention and having a very internationally focus” (Fijter, 2006).

Although the mission statement and the liberal persuasion over time stays the same, the direction of the newspaper NRC fluctuated with the appointment of different editor-in chiefs. By the appointment of Peter Vandermeersch in 2010 as chief-editor the nature of NRC has been diluting according to media critics such as Rob Wijnberg, a well-known Dutch journalist and philosopher: “Vandermeersch insists that NRC readers not only have a head, but also a heart and abdomen. It should all be tastier, more accessible, finer etc” (Berkeljon & Althuisius, 2012). Also, by the appointment of Peter Vandermeersch editors are encouraged to place more sharp opinions. Before, opinions and facts were strictly separated from each other. Vandermeersch argues that NRC should be a platform for strong opinions so that they can be the leader in the public debate: "Long live the views, live debate. Long live the digital media that provide an ideal platform for this type of journalism” (Vandermeersch, 2014).

This sense of new purpose and ambition is visible in the new website that is presented as an attractive live blog with also enough space for opinion makers. But to understand the origin of the form and style of the current website we have to go back to the start of this website. It all started with the appointment of a new editor for the website: the blogger Ernst-Jan-Pfauth. This boy was known by the success of his own blogs and had to make the website of NRC future proof. We must pay special attention to his input here, because his input still makes it imprint on the current website.

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blog style is still evident in their design. The mission of Pfauth en Vandermeersch at that time was: “mainly focusing on original newsgathering and investigative journalism by writing about the how and why of things. It should be the perfect place to be for the general

intellectual debate and public opinion. And by its reports on culture and media experience it should be a reliable online guide (Vandermeersch, 2013). Since Pfauth left in 2011 the

presentation and structure of the website changed little. Nrc.nl still looks like a blog where the focus seems not to be on news but rather on blogs since they take in more than 50 % of the space on the homepage. The current strategy from NRC is putting emphasize on their digital products; they have the future as they believe.

Chapter 3. Methodology

As described before, Dutch newspapers have gone from seeing technology as a rival, to embracing it as a companion and integrating so-called web-native elements in their online news products. This often occurred in a haphazard fashion (Miel & Faris, 2008). Critics are concerned that this radical transformation of newspaper into an online news product-caused by the technical conditions of the internet, transforms or stands in contrast to the core identity of the newspaper (Wurf & Lauf, 2005).

Study Objective

Through the analysis of several web-native (non-traditional) features of Dutch online newspapers I want to question whether these forms of technology may alter newspaper

products in fundamental ways (Nair, n.d.). Since no research has in particular been focused on the adoption of web-native features of online newspapers in relation to their identity in the Netherlands, I decided to try to fill in this gap with an explorative study. This thesis therefore explores how Dutch newspapers make use of the web’s affordances to create an online news product and analyzes these in relation to the newspapers’ identities and publically stated motivations. In order to learn more about and find out what the key elements of the online news products are, the following question has been proposed: Which elements of each online news product are prioritized, and how is their formal specificity related to topical focus as well as the newspapers' respective identities and publicly stated motivations?

Method

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within qualitative social research was chosen. Qualitative research methods are excellent for finding and possibly explaining the uniqueness of specific case studies. It has an explorative nature (McQuail, 1994). For example, Gray emphasizes in her work on cultural research methods, the ‘uniqueness’ of qualitative investigations (Gray, 2003, p.74).

The method consists of two parts. The first part consists of a macro-analysis that studies what non-traditional features are taken up by newspapers in their online products: this is done by using a content analysis that focuses on manifest content (in this case web-native features). The second part is a micro-analysis that analyzes how each newspaper uses its particular ‘key feature.’ A qualitative content analysis is conducted here which uses deductive coding based on an adjusted coding scheme by Quandt (2008).

The case study

To provide all aspects of online media insights and designs, a case study strategy was chosen since it is a means to present the most detailed and rich description of a phenomenon possible. This case study more was aimed at developing new theories about online news products and not so much on testing existing ones (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). This case study contains three Dutch newspapers. The following Dutch newspapers were chosen: Telegraaf.nl, Volkskrant.nl and Nrc.nl. These were chosen because they have between them an almost similar number of visitors and can thus be seen as the most influential newspapers. Another requirement was that the online news products needed to have a paper counterpart that had a distinctly different profile/mission statement from one another because, within this research, the research

question not only revolves around the available key elements of the online news websites but also considers if there is a relationship with the mission statement or profile of the paper counterpart.

Sample

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of the object of study, followed by a content analyses based on an analytical file. Sample two focuses on the content of the key element of the websites of the three newspapers

Volkskrant.nl, Telegraaf.nl and Nrc.nl. They were derived from the homepage or derived from a special section that was linked prominently on the homepage.

In both cases the sample size is fairly small: three newspapers, their respective homepages and a small size sample on the content of the online news products’ key features. Some may imply that samples of these sizes are not large enough to make a comprehensive study of the respective online news products. However, this was not the study goal. In this study, whether adoption of web-native features alter the newspaper in fundamental ways and change the core-identity of the newspaper was questioned. Hence, the sample was designed to serve as an illustrative purpose and not as a sample that should tell us more about the

changing content of the online news products. After all, the goal of this study is to investigate the adoption of web-native forms in order to question the existing knowledge of the

revolutionary power of technology, and the power of these technologies to alter the identity of the traditional newspaper in a new way.

Part one: Manifest content analysis of web-native features

The first section of this research contains the online news products in general and provides the data for the "macro-view" of the adoption of non-traditional or web-native forms. In media research, web-native features are also called technological affordances. They are the

properties of the technology environment that provide action possibilities to users given their action capabilities (Gaver, 1991). For example, an archive function, multimedia elements or a blog element presented at an online newspaper can all be defined as technical affordances of the web. Gaver (1991) thinks that various media might be characterized in terms of the affordance they make available (Gaver, 1991). These technological affordances (images, multimedia elements, formats) can say something more about a newspaper’s identity since the digital appearance of the newspaper has become more and more important over the years. Formal characteristics articulate the newspaper’s ideological stand and style at a given moment, and it’s individual identity, argues media scholar Broersma (2007).

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description and deeper understanding of the online news product. Content analysis is suitable for studying current events such as online features (Berger, 1991, p.26). And content analysis, as the term will be used here, “is a research technique that is based on measuring the amount of something in a reprehensive sample of some mass mediated popular art form” (Berger, 1991, p.25). The content analysis requires the counting of certain variables in a clearly defined sample and then analyzing them. It is aimed to make the research valid and accurate. A content analysis approach, as suggested by Glaser and Strauss (1967) involves examining the patterns evident in the manifest content and classifying the data into categories.

Consequently, an analytical file is designed to classify the data into categories of web-native features.

Analytical file

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Table 1. The analytic list for analyzing the online news product based on the list by Palicios & Noci (2009)

Categories of elements: Specific elements:

Multimedia content: - Video

- streaming audio - photos

- animated graphics - photo galleries

External content: - social media such as Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin - blogs

- inclusion of free tools such as Youtube, Google maps etc. - commercials

Interactive elements: - commentary on articles - chat function

- forum - poll

- hypertext in articles

Archive - database of news

- access to archives - hypertext on the homepage Personalization and

recommendation

- most popular news items - news items that have received the

most comments

- most highly rated news items - other articles that you might want

to read - newsfeed

Structure of the homepage

- scheme of screen structure - structure of the

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Part two: A Micro-view: from key elements towards key topics

After providing a macro-view of how the newspapers have adapted differently in the new environment, the second step of the research zooms in on how exactly the newspapers use the new features and forms afforded by the web. This happens in two steps. First, I examine the homepages to determine the most significant adopted features, such as multimedia, use of hypertext, etc. Second, I perform a qualitative content analysis to see how that adopted feature is being used. Being a little bit more specific, I use a qualitative content analysis as proposed by Bryman in the following way: "An approach to documents that emphasizes the role of the investigator in meaning the construction of the meaning of and in texts. There is an emphasis on allowing categories to emerge out of data and on recognizing the significance for

understanding the context in which an item being analyzed (and the categories derived from it) appeared" (Bryman, 2004, p.542). Bryman’s qualitative content analyses approach fits thus well with the explorative nature of this study. Besides, the approach fits with the goal

of the study to understand the meaning of newspapers’ online news products not in isolation but in context of their current media environment.

To determine ‘significant elements’ for each online news product, I looked for the presence of non-traditional forms i.e. multimedia, blogs or other forms that deviate from the tradition of newspaper publishing- and chose the ones that appeared to be prioritized in terms of visibility on the home page. In this way, I interpret the ease with which audiences can reach a particular non-traditional form as a measure of how important that formal element is to the newspaper's online efforts. The next step is to investigate the “key element” by using a qualitative content analyses based on deductive coding used by a coding schema of Quandt (2008).

The examination of the significant key elements in more detail

The most significant web-native media form is coded and divided along respective content categories. These categories (see table 2) are derived from an investigation of online

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the categories of Quandt have also been used as a starting point, but more categories have been added such as science. On Telegraaf.nl, the table of categories of Quandt are used as a starting point because also here new categories needed to be added. Since these added categories were mostly typical for the respective newspaper they have not been found at the other newspapers and are not put in table 2. They can be found back but in the respective results section.

Table 2. Content Categories

Time frame and data archive management

With regards to the time frame of sample one, it is argued that for examining the homepage of an online news product, no specific date needs to be chosen (Wurf & Lauf 2005). News is continually updated during a workday. On the weekends the news is also updated but

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examining the content of the ‘key element’ of Volkskrant.nl from one week up to five months. This is done because the content of the key element was not as regularly updated as the

content of the key elements of NRC.nl and Telegraaf.nl. The content of the latter one was updated daily. The content of the key element of Volkskrant.nl was only updated monthly.

For collecting the data, the archive of the online news product is used. This contains the websites of Nrc.nl, Volkskrant.nl and Telegraaf.nl. All data will be collected and categorized by using Excel program. Next to that, the internet archive function of the way back machine available at http://archive.org/web/ was used. By combining the two archives, obtaining the most accurate picture possible of what has been published was attempted.

Chapter 4. Results

In the search for how the three Dutch newspapers are adopting web-native media forms, the designed analytical files are filled out and can be found below. The results are divided per category (multimedia, interactivity etc.). The home page of each online news product is selected for analysis because, like the newspaper front page, ‘it serves as the window through which the public accesses the news source’s inner contents’ (Cooke, 2005, p.28). The homepage is therefore considered the most significant page of the online news product. The first part of the results section will focus on which non-traditional features e.g. web-native media forms the online news products have adopted on their homepage and which web-native media forms have been prioritized. In the second part of this results section the outcomes of the content analysis will be presented per newspaper. This part will answer the research question: Which topic in the section that of the most significant web-native media form has been focused on the most? In the next chapter (the discussion) the adoption of web-native media forms at each newspaper is discussed and will be focused on the last element of the research question: how is their formal specificity related to topical focus as well as the newspapers' respective identities and publicly stated motivations?

Telegraaf.nl

Multimedia

At Telegraaf.nl multimedia content is intensively available. Every news article of the

From newspaper to online product: evolution or revolution?