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Growth and Development of Online Newspapers with Special Reference to

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240 Digital Preservation and Access to News and Views
CONCLUSION
Newspapers are considered to be the first drafts of history, while at the same
time, are part of a country's cultural heritage. Preservation of newspapers an
utmost necessity. Converting hardcopy archives to digital resources, digital
preservation in terms of preventing paper deterioration as well as full utilization
of the archives can be possible. Microfilm shows very low risk if proper film
base, processing, and physical environment are maintained. Digital storage may
have low to high risk as hardware and software change very frequently and life
expectancy of the formats are still not known. Functionality of microfilm is
uncompromised but when compared to digital storage, it provides more easy
access to the desired information. Anandabazar Patrika has future plans for
digitization of their back volumes with the help of OCR technology invented by
Indian Statistical Institution (ISI), Kolkata. Finally, it can be concluded that
fmancial support and technologically experienced persons are required for
proper preservation of these Bengali newspapers.
REFERENCES
1. Das, S. 2009. Preservation of Newspapers. DESIDOC Journal of Library &
Information Technology, vol. 29 (no. 1): 72-75
2. Gatos, B., Mantzaris, S.L. and Gouraros, N. 2001. An integrated system for
creating a Digital Library from Newspaper Archives The Digital Resources
for the Humanities (DRH2001) Conference, London, U.K., July 2001
3. Jantz, R. 2003. Public opinion polls and digital preservation: An application
of the Fedora Digital Object Repository System. D-Lib Magazine, vol. 9
(no. 11) Available at: <doi;10.1045/november2003-jantz>. (accessed on
14th January, 2010)
4. Jantz, R. & Giarlo, M. J. 2005. Digital Preservation: Architecture and
Technology for Trusted Digital Repositories D-Lib Magazine, vol. 11 (no.
6) Available at: < http://www.dlib.org/dlib/june05/jantz/06jantz.html>.
(accessed on 14th January, 2010)
5. Lynch. C. 2001. When documents deceive: Trust and provenance as new
factors for information retrieval in a tangled web.
Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology,
vol. 52 (no. 1): 12 - 17.
6. Wikipedia Newspaper (html) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Newspaper
(accessed on 17:12.2009)
GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF ONLINE
NEWSPAPERS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO INDIA
Dr. Sumeer Gul
and
Tariq Ahrnad Shah
ABSTRACT
Design/Methodology: The paper examines the. results from a survey conducted
from well renowned online newspaper directories. The research covers the
following aspects: global development of online newspapers, causes for growth,
Indian perspective, coverage, language diversity, state and city output,
archiving policy, and impact of web 2.0 on the online newspapers and their
associated services.
Findings: 5786 online newspapers host the web from 178 nations. USA ranks
first in the list while India occupies the 4th position. The results show a
mounting drift of online newspapers especially among the developed nations.
India, which is also showing an unremitting growth towards online newspapers,
has yet to compete with the rest of the world. Overall, a compound annual
growth rate (CAGR) of 28.29 per cent is observed over a period of 14 years
(1996 to 2009). Maharashtra leads among the 31 contributing states/union
territories of India. Indian newspapers are available in 21 languages with a
high percentage (92.69%) with monolingual interface and about 36 per cent in
English and above 16 per cent in Hindi. Language barrier, a biggest
impediment in communication has yet to be solved and research has to be
carried out to provide a multilingual access to the online content through
newspapers. E-paper facility is found in around 58 per cent while approximately
60 per cent provide archive facility. A meager proportion of about 15 percent
provide video links. Around 30 per cent make use of web 2.0 tools. Web 2.0
which is the latest buzz and holds a paramount importance in the online market
has yet to make its way in the Indian online newspaper souk
Future Implications: An intense study on user behaviour and online
newspapers can be carried out using deep log analysis methods. Studying the
needs of the online newspaper patrons in a virtual world will help in designing a
better sustainability for online newspapers.
Originality/Value: The study presents the results from the data gathered from
different tools which provide access to online newspapers worldwide and India
particularly. The study depicts originality in its contents and is of value
especially to the reference librarians, information professionals, media
personnel and others interested in grabbing nascent information through
newspapers.
Keywords: Online newspapers, Online Journalism, Online Periodicals, Web
2.0, Online newspapers-India, Reference Services, India.
242 Digital Preservation and Access to News and Views
INTRODUCTION
It is a well known proverb, 'one can do without a cup of tea in the morning, but
not without a morning newspaper'. But a number of obstacles hinder the people
to have access to information, they are in need of. The World Wide Web has
opened new dimensions for the information flow with the advent of web
resources which have become a rivulet crossing all the borders (Gul 2007).
Online newspapers, a promising medium for dissemination of information are
increasing their magnitude on the Web. The potentialities of the Web have been
accepted by the newspaper market globally. The shrinking market of the
traditional print newspapers led the print news to drift to the World Wide Web
and its dynamic delivery realized a need to have web counterparts of old
traditional newspapers. The newspapers available via the Web are making a
mainstream medium that play as important a role as their printed counterparts in
delivering information and informing the public (Eveland et al 2004).Their rise
has been one of the most spectacular success stories of the Internet as has been
witnessed by Li. He furthermore comments on online newspapers as a more
mature, more sophisticated, and more efficient medium in delivering
information (2006: ix). The newspapers on the Internet were born with a much
lower profile, though not free from the prophecy of media analysts (Riley et al
1998). Not as many as great expectations were placed on them compared to
other new media derived from technological innovations, (Giles 2000; & Ingle
1995:17) online newspapers not only survived, but also expanded exponentially.
Online newspaper is a phenomenon along with the growth of Internet.
The growth of online newspapers traces back to 1992 when for the first time U.S
newspapers were published on Web. Newspaper content was text based and was
delivered through BBS or online services such as Prodigy and America Online.
On September 12, 1994, Netscape released the beta version of its navigator, a
graphic web browser. Newspapers formally established their presence on the
World Wide Web soon after that. There were approximately 60 North American
newspapers with sites on the Internet or with dial up services by the end of 1994.
The pioneers among the online newspapers were Raleigh News and Observer,
San Francisco Observer/ Chronicle, and San Jose Mercury News. In 1996,
approximately 500 North American newspapers established sites on Internet or
through dial up services, but only half of them, 248 daily newspapers were
published on the Web by September 1996. Newspapers on the Web reached the
critical mass scale around 1997. By September 1997, 745 U.S newspapers,
about half of the U.S dailies were published on the Internet as witnessed by
Meyer (cited by Li 2006:2). The growth of newspapers on the Internet
accelerated in 1997. There were 1,290 U.S newspapers online in March 1998.
The number reached 2,059 (as of September 27, 1998), a growth of 60% in six
months and 176% in one year (Peng et al 1999:52-63). More than 3,400 U.S
papers were online by June 2001. Most of the U.S newspapers were published
on the Internet in 2001 as witnessed by Poynter (cited by Li 2006: 2). The
unprecedented magnitude of online newspapers is expanding gradually.
Many factors are responsible for their popularity. On many occasions, audiences
rely more on newspapers on Internet for information because of ease in access,
Growth and Development of Online Newspapers 243
updated more often, and richer in content than print newspapers (Chyi and
Lasorsa 1999: 2). Publishers can use the Internet as a marketing channel to reach
potential customers that do not read print newspapers. They can also use the
Internet to strengthen relationships with existing readers by offering new
services (breaking news, classified and sites), by collecting reader information,
and by establishing two-way communication with readers (Mings & White
2000; Peng, et al 1999:52-63) (cited by Wurff and Lauf 2005:14). Online
editions help in making the content available in real-time, and text would be
sexed up with moving images and sound (Boczkowski, 2002; & Massey &
Levy, (1999) (cited by Wurff and Lauf 2005:15) which is the choice of today's
world.
Online newspapers are becoming the present trend in the virtual world with
extraordinary intensity. Newspapers, being a product of printing press enjoyed
the privilege of monopolizing the mass media market for centuries until the
advent of radio and television. It was World Wide Web that helped the
newspaper sector to flourish (Peng et al 1999:52-63). Time is not far when
newspapers in a virtual mode will become the choice of globe.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Although the concept of online newspapers is not a new one, but very less
research has been carried out regarding their growth and development. The
technological development has brought about unparalleled and drastic changes
in the newspaper market. The concept of online newspapers has opened new
horizons for the seekers of nascent thoughts. The year 1995 saw newspapers
settling on the Web as their electronic publishing environment of choice
(Beamish 1997; Carveth, Owers & Alexander 1998; Garrison, 1997; Martin and
Hansen 1998; Molina, 1997) (cited by Boczkowski 2002: 273). An early study
of online newspapers found that interactive features in them were scarce as
opined by Tankard and Ban (1998). A count by the Newspaper Association of
America showed more than 175 US dailies publishing on the web at the end of
1998, a number that grew to over 750 three years later (Newspaper Association
of America, 1998; Editor and Publisher, 1996) (cited by Boczkowski 2002:
273). Chyi and Lasorsa (1999:2) studying the access, use and preference for
online newspapers witnessed a total of 2,900 newspapers operating online, of
which more than 1,800 were U.S based. Li (2006: 2) researched that from the
period of 1996-2002; more than 4,000 newspapers were created on the Internet.
OBJECTIVES
The study aims to explore the online newspaper wealth in general at global level
and India in particular. The study delves deep in to the coverage, language
diversity, state output, archiving policy, and impact of web 2.0 on the online
newspapers and their associated services.
242 Digital Preservation and Access to News and Views
INTRODUCTION
It is a well known proverb, 'one can do without a cup of tea in the morning, but
not without a morning newspaper'. But a number of obstacles hinder the people
to have access to information, they are in need of. The World Wide Web has
opened new dimensions for the information flow with the advent of web
resources which have become a rivulet crossing all the borders (Gul 2007).
Online newspapers, a promising medium for dissemination of information are
increasing their magnitude on the Web. The potentialities of the Web have been
accepted by the newspaper market globally. The shrinking market of the
traditional print newspapers led the print news to drift to the World Wide Web
and its dynamic delivery realized a need to have web counterparts of old
traditional newspapers. The newspapers available via the Web are making a
mainstream medium that play as important a role as their printed counterparts in
delivering information and informing the public (Eveland et al 2004).Their rise
has been one of the most spectacular success stories of the Internet as has been
witnessed by Li. He furthermore comments on online newspapers as a more
mature, more sophisticated, and more efficient medium in delivering
information (2006: ix). The newspapers on the Internet were born with a much
lower profile, though not free from the prophecy of media analysts (Riley et al
1998). Not as many as great expectations were placed on them compared to
other new media derived from technological innovations, (Giles 2000; & Ingle
1995:17) online newspapers not only survived, but also expanded exponentially.
Online newspaper is a phenomenon along with the growth of Internet.
The growth of online newspapers traces back to 1992 when for the first time U.S
newspapers were published on Web. Newspaper content was text based and was
delivered through BBS or online services such as Prodigy and America Online.
On September 12, 1994, Netscape released the beta version of its navigator, a
graphic web browser. Newspapers formally established their presence on the
World Wide Web soon after that. There were approximately 60 North American
newspapers with sites on the Internet or with dial up services by the end of 1994.
The pioneers among the online newspapers were Raleigh News and Observer,
San Francisco Observer/ Chronicle, and San Jose Mercury News. In 1996,
approximately 500 North American newspapers established sites on Internet or
through dial up services, but only half of them, 248 daily newspapers were
published on the Web by September 1996. Newspapers on the Web reached the
critical mass scale around 1997. By September 1997, 745 U.S newspapers,
about half of the U.S dailies were published on the Internet as witnessed by
Meyer (cited by Li 2006:2). The growth of newspapers on the Internet
accelerated in 1997. There were 1,290 U.S newspapers online in March 1998.
The number reached 2,059 (as of September 27, 1998), a growth of 60% in six
months and 176% in one year (Peng et al 1999:52-63). More than 3,400 U.S
papers were online by June 2001. Most of the U.S newspapers were published
on the Internet in 2001 as witnessed by Poynter (cited by Li 2006: 2). The
unprecedented magnitude of online newspapers is expanding gradually.
Many factors are responsible for their popularity. On many occasions, audiences
rely more on newspapers on Internet for information because of ease in access,
Growth and Development of Online Newspapers 243
updated more often, and richer in content than print newspapers (Chyi and
Lasorsa 1999: 2). Publishers can use the Internet as a marketing channel to reach
potential customers that do not read print newspapers. They can also use the
Internet to strengthen relationships with existing readers by offering new
services (breaking news, classified and sites), by collecting reader information,
and by establishing two-way communication with readers (Mings & White
2000; Peng, et al 1999:52-63) (cited by Wurff and Lauf 2005:14). Online
editions help in making the content available in real-time, and text would be
sexed up with moving images and sound (Boczkowski, 2002; & Massey &
Levy, (1999) (cited by Wurff and Lauf 2005:15) which is the choice of today's
world.
Online newspapers are becoming the present trend in the virtual world with
extraordinary intensity. Newspapers, being a product of printing press enjoyed
the privilege of monopolizing the mass media market for centuries until the
advent of radio and television. It was World Wide Web that helped the
newspaper sector to flourish (Peng et al 1999:52-63). Time is not far when
newspapers in a virtual mode will become the choice of globe.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Although the concept of online newspapers is not a new one, but very less
research has been carried out regarding their growth and development. The
technological development has brought about unparalleled and drastic changes
in the newspaper market. The concept of online newspapers has opened new
horizons for the seekers of nascent thoughts. The year 1995 saw newspapers
settling on the Web as their electronic publishing environment of choice
(Beamish 1997; Carveth, Owers & Alexander 1998; Garrison, 1997; Martin and
Hansen 1998; Molina, 1997) (cited by Boczkowski 2002: 273). An early study
of online newspapers found that interactive features in them were scarce as
opined by Tankard and Ban (1998). A count by the Newspaper Association of
America showed more than 175 US dailies publishing on the web at the end of
1998, a number that grew to over 750 three years later (Newspaper Association
of America, 1998; Editor and Publisher, 1996) (cited by Boczkowski 2002:
273). Chyi and Lasorsa (1999:2) studying the access, use and preference for
online newspapers witnessed a total of 2,900 newspapers operating online, of
which more than 1,800 were U.S based. Li (2006: 2) researched that from the
period of 1996-2002; more than 4,000 newspapers were created on the Internet.
OBJECTIVES
The study aims to explore the online newspaper wealth in general at global level
and India in particular. The study delves deep in to the coverage, language
diversity, state output, archiving policy, and impact of web 2.0 on the online
newspapers and their associated services.

244 Digital Preservation and Access to News and Views Growth and Development of Online Newspapers 245

SCOPE Table 1: Country wise distribution of Newspapers

The study has taken into account only those Indian Online newspapers which are No. of
Rank Country Percentage
also published in print, and the newspapers having only online internet edition Newspapers
1 United States of America 2402 41.51
were omitted.
2 Canada 327 5.65
3 United Kingdom 306 5.29
4 India 260 4.49
METHODOLOGY
5 Germany 232 4.01
To build a picture of online newspapers worldwide, papers listed in two 6 China 139 2.40
excellent and comprehensive d";'-ectories, Ulrichsweb.com and Internet Public 7 Mexico 136 2.35
library (IPL) were clubbed toget er. As each noted different figures for the same 8 Russia 99 1.71
country, duplicate entries were omitted in order to arrive at an appropriate 9 Italy 96 1.66
figure. A number of websites like Yahoo Newspaper Directory, Paperboy.com, 10 Spain 85 1.47
Online Newspaper.com, and Newspaper Association of America etc, which list 11 Australia 83 1.43
online newspapers, were also consulted. However, on manually checking for 12 Norway 75 1.30
Indian perspective, a number of errors were traced out and as such were 13 France 61 1.05
excluded for global view. Since the main thrust of this study is to gauge Indian 14 Denmark 54 0.93
output, thorough and exhaustive search was conducted on a number of websites 47 countries with newspapers 10-50 1023
besides the above mentioned websites. The entire run of each newspaper was 26 countries with newspapers 5-10 188
examined manually to authenticate their existence and to harvest the necessary 37 countries with newspapers 3-5 , 148
data. Besides, Registrar of Newspapers for India (RNI), an apex body to compile 18 countries with 2 newspaper each 36
and maintain register of newspapers published (in print) in India was also 36 countries with one newspaper only 36
consulted in order to ascertain their print mode. In addition, database of Whois TOTAL , 5786
(http://who.is/), a web domain information provider, was consulted to retrieve
information regarding the year of launching online edition and contact
information of the newspaper website holder.

RESULTS ■ High
income. 74%
As of 24 December 2009, Registrar of Newspapers for India (RNI) recorded an
approximation of 7532 distinct titles that are daily published in around 41 ■ Lower middle
languages from 7532 cities of 35 Indian states/union territories. However a income. 12%
meager number of 260 papers is found to have presence on the web.
■ Upper middle
Global Perspective income. 11%
A total of 5,786 online newspapers from 178 contributing countries are found to ■ Low
enrich the Web. USA proved to be a giant in terms of number of online income. 2%
. • Untraceable,
newspapers (2402), accounting for 41.51 per cent of the total (Table 1). Canada 1%
and United Kingdom follows the list with 327 (5.65%) and 306 (5.29%)
newspapers respectively. India holds 4th position with a total of 260 (4.49%)
online newspapers. Moreover, the World Bank List of Economies List (July
Figure 1: Distribution of newspapers on GDP status of countries
2009) was applied which categorized the nations in to High Income; Upper
Middle Income, Lower Middle Income and Low Income Countries. The study
State wise distribution
clearly reveals that 74% of the total online newspaper wealth is from High
Income countries followed by Lower Middle Income (12%) and Upper Middle State wise distribution which is based on the location of main
Income (11%) countries respectively. Low Income countries accounted a office/headquarters of a newspaper reveals that Maharashtra with 34 newspapers
meager percentage of 2% only. (Fig. 1) or 13.08 per cent of total ranks Ist among the 31 contributing states/union
territories of India. Delhi with 24 papers, accounting to 9.23% follows the list.

244 Digital Preservation and Access to News and Views Growth and Development of Online Newspapers 245

SCOPE Table 1: Country wise distribution of Newspapers

The study has taken into account only those Indian Online newspapers which are No. of
Rank Country Percentage
also published in print, and the newspapers having only online internet edition Newspapers
1 United States of America 2402 41.51
were omitted.
2 Canada 327 5.65
3 United Kingdom 306 5.29
4 India 260 4.49
METHODOLOGY
5 Germany 232 4.01
To build a picture of online newspapers worldwide, papers listed in two 6 China 139 2.40
excellent and comprehensive d";'-ectories, Ulrichsweb.com and Internet Public 7 Mexico 136 2.35
library (IPL) were clubbed toget er. As each noted different figures for the same 8 Russia 99 1.71
country, duplicate entries were omitted in order to arrive at an appropriate 9 Italy 96 1.66
figure. A number of websites like Yahoo Newspaper Directory, Paperboy.com, 10 Spain 85 1.47
Online Newspaper.com, and Newspaper Association of America etc, which list 11 Australia 83 1.43
online newspapers, were also consulted. However, on manually checking for 12 Norway 75 1.30
Indian perspective, a number of errors were traced out and as such were 13 France 61 1.05
excluded for global view. Since the main thrust of this study is to gauge Indian 14 Denmark 54 0.93
output, thorough and exhaustive search was conducted on a number of websites 47 countries with newspapers 10-50 1023
besides the above mentioned websites. The entire run of each newspaper was 26 countries with newspapers 5-10 188
examined manually to authenticate their existence and to harvest the necessary 37 countries with newspapers 3-5 , 148
data. Besides, Registrar of Newspapers for India (RNI), an apex body to compile 18 countries with 2 newspaper each 36
and maintain register of newspapers published (in print) in India was also 36 countries with one newspaper only 36
consulted in order to ascertain their print mode. In addition, database of Whois TOTAL , 5786
(http://who.is/), a web domain information provider, was consulted to retrieve
information regarding the year of launching online edition and contact
information of the newspaper website holder.

RESULTS ■ High
income. 74%
As of 24 December 2009, Registrar of Newspapers for India (RNI) recorded an
approximation of 7532 distinct titles that are daily published in around 41 ■ Lower middle
languages from 7532 cities of 35 Indian states/union territories. However a income. 12%
meager number of 260 papers is found to have presence on the web.
■ Upper middle
Global Perspective income. 11%
A total of 5,786 online newspapers from 178 contributing countries are found to ■ Low
enrich the Web. USA proved to be a giant in terms of number of online income. 2%
. • Untraceable,
newspapers (2402), accounting for 41.51 per cent of the total (Table 1). Canada 1%
and United Kingdom follows the list with 327 (5.65%) and 306 (5.29%)
newspapers respectively. India holds 4th position with a total of 260 (4.49%)
online newspapers. Moreover, the World Bank List of Economies List (July
Figure 1: Distribution of newspapers on GDP status of countries
2009) was applied which categorized the nations in to High Income; Upper
Middle Income, Lower Middle Income and Low Income Countries. The study
State wise distribution
clearly reveals that 74% of the total online newspaper wealth is from High
Income countries followed by Lower Middle Income (12%) and Upper Middle State wise distribution which is based on the location of main
Income (11%) countries respectively. Low Income countries accounted a office/headquarters of a newspaper reveals that Maharashtra with 34 newspapers
meager percentage of 2% only. (Fig. 1) or 13.08 per cent of total ranks Ist among the 31 contributing states/union
territories of India. Delhi with 24 papers, accounting to 9.23% follows the list.
246 Digital Preservation and Access to News and Views Growth and Development of Online Newspapers 247

Gujarat and Karnataka with 19 papers each (7.31%) held the third rank. As Table 3: Language wise distribution
indicated in table 2, among 5 top ranked states, 4 positions are occupied by those Rank Language No. of Newspapers
states having metropolitan cities (Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, & Chennai). I English 102 (36.3)
Ironically, no online paper was found from Bihar during the study period. (Table 2 Hindi 46 (16.37)
2) 3 Gujarati 19 (6.76)
Table 2: State wise distribution of Online Newspapers 4 Urdu 15 (5.34)
5 Marathi 14 (4.98)
Rank State Newspapers 6 Kannada 13 (4.63)
1 Maharashtra 34 (13.08) 7 Malayalam 12 (4.27)
2 Delhi 24 (9.23) 8 Tamil 10 (3.56)
3 Gujarat 19 (7.31) 9 Assami 9 (3.2)
9 Bengali 9 (3.2)
3 Karnataka 19 (7.31)
9 Telgu 9 (3.2)
4 West Bengal 18 (6.92) 10 Oriya 7 (2.49)
5 Tamil Nadu 17 (6.54) 11 Punjabi 6 (2.14)
6 Andhra Pradesh 15 (5.77) 12 Manipuri 2 (0.71)
7 Jammu and Kashmir 13 (5) 12 Nepali 2 (0.71)
7 Kerala 13 (5) 13 AO 1 (0.36)
8 Assam 12 (4.62) 13 Goan Konkani 1 (0.36)
9 Madhya Pradesh 9 (3.46) 13 Khasi I (0.36)
9 Uttar Pradesh 9 (3.46) 13 Mizo 1 (0.36)
10 Orissa 13 Sanskrit 1 (0.36)
7 (2.69)
13 Tibetan 1 (0.36)
11 Punjab 6 (2.31)
Figures in parentheses indicate percentage
11 Rajasthan 6 (2.31)
12 Arunanchal Pradesh 5 (1.92)
Chronological Development
12 Nagaland 5 (1.92)
13 Goa 4 (1.54) Table 4 visualizes that Indian newspapers started to host their content on web
14 Chhattisgarh 3 (1.15) from the year 1996 and a big leap of 328.57% was observed in the year 1997.
14 Manipur 3 (1.15) The year 2007 witnessed maximum number of newspapers (32) that flashed
14 Sikkim 3 (1.15) their content online followed by the year 1998 and 2005 with 27 and 25
15 Chandigarh 2 (0.77) newspapers respectively. Overall, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of
15 Haryana 2 (0.77) 28.29% is observed over a period of 14 years (1996 to 2009). (Fig 2)
15 Jharlchand 2 (0.77) Table 4: Distribution of newspapers over the year
15 Meghalaya 2 (0.77)
15 Tripura Year No. of Papers Cumulative No. Cumulative Growth
2 (0.77)
1996 7 7 -
15 Uttarakhand 2 (0.77) 1997 23 30 328.57
16 Andaman Nicobar 1 (0.38) 1998 27 57 90.00
16 Himachal Pradesh 1 (0.38) 1999 22 79 . 38.60
16 Mizorani 1 (0.38) 2000 14 93 17.72
16 Pondicherry 1 (0.38) 2001 9 102 9.68
Total 260 (100) 2002 13 115 12.75
Figures in parentheses indicate percentage 2003 7 122 6.09
2004 10 132 8.20
Language 2005 25 157 18.94
2006 18 175 11.46
A high percentage of papers (241, 92.69%) are monolingual succeeded by 17 2007 32 207 18.29
papers (6.54%) as bilingual and a meager number of 2, with multilingual 2008 22 229 10.63
interface. As shown in Table 3, Indian newspapers are available in 21 languages 2009 17 246 7.42
with highest number of 102 papers (36.3%) in English followed respectively by UT 14 260 -
Hindi (16.37%) and Guajarati (6.76%). UT Untraceable
246 Digital Preservation and Access to News and Views Growth and Development of Online Newspapers 247

Gujarat and Karnataka with 19 papers each (7.31%) held the third rank. As Table 3: Language wise distribution
indicated in table 2, among 5 top ranked states, 4 positions are occupied by those Rank Language No. of Newspapers
states having metropolitan cities (Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, & Chennai). I English 102 (36.3)
Ironically, no online paper was found from Bihar during the study period. (Table 2 Hindi 46 (16.37)
2) 3 Gujarati 19 (6.76)
Table 2: State wise distribution of Online Newspapers 4 Urdu 15 (5.34)
5 Marathi 14 (4.98)
Rank State Newspapers 6 Kannada 13 (4.63)
1 Maharashtra 34 (13.08) 7 Malayalam 12 (4.27)
2 Delhi 24 (9.23) 8 Tamil 10 (3.56)
3 Gujarat 19 (7.31) 9 Assami 9 (3.2)
9 Bengali 9 (3.2)
3 Karnataka 19 (7.31)
9 Telgu 9 (3.2)
4 West Bengal 18 (6.92) 10 Oriya 7 (2.49)
5 Tamil Nadu 17 (6.54) 11 Punjabi 6 (2.14)
6 Andhra Pradesh 15 (5.77) 12 Manipuri 2 (0.71)
7 Jammu and Kashmir 13 (5) 12 Nepali 2 (0.71)
7 Kerala 13 (5) 13 AO 1 (0.36)
8 Assam 12 (4.62) 13 Goan Konkani 1 (0.36)
9 Madhya Pradesh 9 (3.46) 13 Khasi I (0.36)
9 Uttar Pradesh 9 (3.46) 13 Mizo 1 (0.36)
10 Orissa 13 Sanskrit 1 (0.36)
7 (2.69)
13 Tibetan 1 (0.36)
11 Punjab 6 (2.31)
Figures in parentheses indicate percentage
11 Rajasthan 6 (2.31)
12 Arunanchal Pradesh 5 (1.92)
Chronological Development
12 Nagaland 5 (1.92)
13 Goa 4 (1.54) Table 4 visualizes that Indian newspapers started to host their content on web
14 Chhattisgarh 3 (1.15) from the year 1996 and a big leap of 328.57% was observed in the year 1997.
14 Manipur 3 (1.15) The year 2007 witnessed maximum number of newspapers (32) that flashed
14 Sikkim 3 (1.15) their content online followed by the year 1998 and 2005 with 27 and 25
15 Chandigarh 2 (0.77) newspapers respectively. Overall, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of
15 Haryana 2 (0.77) 28.29% is observed over a period of 14 years (1996 to 2009). (Fig 2)
15 Jharlchand 2 (0.77) Table 4: Distribution of newspapers over the year
15 Meghalaya 2 (0.77)
15 Tripura Year No. of Papers Cumulative No. Cumulative Growth
2 (0.77)
1996 7 7 -
15 Uttarakhand 2 (0.77) 1997 23 30 328.57
16 Andaman Nicobar 1 (0.38) 1998 27 57 90.00
16 Himachal Pradesh 1 (0.38) 1999 22 79 . 38.60
16 Mizorani 1 (0.38) 2000 14 93 17.72
16 Pondicherry 1 (0.38) 2001 9 102 9.68
Total 260 (100) 2002 13 115 12.75
Figures in parentheses indicate percentage 2003 7 122 6.09
2004 10 132 8.20
Language 2005 25 157 18.94
2006 18 175 11.46
A high percentage of papers (241, 92.69%) are monolingual succeeded by 17 2007 32 207 18.29
papers (6.54%) as bilingual and a meager number of 2, with multilingual 2008 22 229 10.63
interface. As shown in Table 3, Indian newspapers are available in 21 languages 2009 17 246 7.42
with highest number of 102 papers (36.3%) in English followed respectively by UT 14 260 -
Hindi (16.37%) and Guajarati (6.76%). UT Untraceable
 Growth and Development of Online Newspapers 249
248 Digital Preservation and Access to News and Views
Video Facility
250
Papers with their own video library and those providing links to the You Tube
were tagged in the video category. From Table 6, it is clear that 40 (15.38%)
200
papers provide video facility and an outsized proportion lacks this mesmerizing
feature.
150

50

‘.4 § §

Figure 2: Cumulative Growth over a span of 14 years (1996-2009)

e-paper & Digital Preservation Policies (Archive)

e-paper, a technological advancement to read and experience printed newspapers
online, was available for 152 newspapers amounting to 58.46%. Newspaper
sites which provide access to the back issues at least for one week were
categorized under those papers with archive facility and as such a total of 155 Figure 4: Video facility
papers provided access to the electronic archives. Besides, 41.54% (108)
provide both facilities while 62 papers (23.85%) posses none. Table 5 supported
with Fig. 3 gives a more clear view of the above fmdings. Web 2.0 features
Table 5: e-paper & Archive Facilities The study clearly reveals that three Web 2.0 tools are mostly used by the online
e-paper Archive news media, exemplified by Really Simple Syndication (RSS), Twitter, and
152 (58.46) 155 (59.62) Blog. Among these, RSS showed presence in 71 newspapers followed
Yes
108 (41.54) 105 (40.38) respectively by blogs in 37 papers (Table 7). Twitter being the recent invention
No
Figures in parentheses indicate percentage of 2006 appeared least (37, 14.23%). In general, 78 newspaper websites utilize
any of these features while a high percentage (70%) lacks Web 2.0 tools. Fig. 5
conveys that only 11 papers are having all these features, 21 with RSS and
blogs, 6 possess RSS and Twitter and only one provides blog and Twitter.
160

150 Table 7: Web 2.0 features

140 RSS Twitter Blog Any
130 Yes 71 (27.31) 21 (8.08) 37 (14.23) 78 (30)
ti
120 No 189 (72.69) 239 (91.92) 223 (85.77) 182 (70)
0 Figures in parentheses indicate percentage
110

100
epaper Archive Both

Figure 3: e-paper & Archive Facilities

 Growth and Development of Online Newspapers 249
248 Digital Preservation and Access to News and Views
Video Facility
250
Papers with their own video library and those providing links to the You Tube
were tagged in the video category. From Table 6, it is clear that 40 (15.38%)
200
papers provide video facility and an outsized proportion lacks this mesmerizing
feature.
150

50

‘.4 § §

Figure 2: Cumulative Growth over a span of 14 years (1996-2009)

e-paper & Digital Preservation Policies (Archive)

e-paper, a technological advancement to read and experience printed newspapers
online, was available for 152 newspapers amounting to 58.46%. Newspaper
sites which provide access to the back issues at least for one week were
categorized under those papers with archive facility and as such a total of 155 Figure 4: Video facility
papers provided access to the electronic archives. Besides, 41.54% (108)
provide both facilities while 62 papers (23.85%) posses none. Table 5 supported
with Fig. 3 gives a more clear view of the above fmdings. Web 2.0 features
Table 5: e-paper & Archive Facilities The study clearly reveals that three Web 2.0 tools are mostly used by the online
e-paper Archive news media, exemplified by Really Simple Syndication (RSS), Twitter, and
152 (58.46) 155 (59.62) Blog. Among these, RSS showed presence in 71 newspapers followed
Yes
108 (41.54) 105 (40.38) respectively by blogs in 37 papers (Table 7). Twitter being the recent invention
No
Figures in parentheses indicate percentage of 2006 appeared least (37, 14.23%). In general, 78 newspaper websites utilize
any of these features while a high percentage (70%) lacks Web 2.0 tools. Fig. 5
conveys that only 11 papers are having all these features, 21 with RSS and
blogs, 6 possess RSS and Twitter and only one provides blog and Twitter.
160

150 Table 7: Web 2.0 features

140 RSS Twitter Blog Any
130 Yes 71 (27.31) 21 (8.08) 37 (14.23) 78 (30)
ti
120 No 189 (72.69) 239 (91.92) 223 (85.77) 182 (70)
0 Figures in parentheses indicate percentage
110

100
epaper Archive Both

Figure 3: e-paper & Archive Facilities

250 Digital Preservation and Access to News and Views
Twitter
Figure 5: Venn representation of Web 2.0 features of Newspapers
CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION
Online newspapers - 'the information highway' have established themselves as a
viable and promising publishing media. The study clearly reveals that there is a
flurry of growth of the online newspaper wealth globally as well as in India. The
main reason for their growth at a global level is directly proportional to the high
rate of growth in G.D.P which makes the High Income countries to give a better
output in terms of online newspaper wealth. However, a developing economy
like India is doing excellently in the online newspaper market because India has
also followed the voice, 'information for all'. In addition, India has jumped on to
Big Emerging Market (BEM) league. Furthermore, countries having high
Human Development Index (HOD also excel in online newspaper market
because a promising HDI takes into account how income is turned into better
opportunities. In terms of the state wise growth of online newspapers, central
government has to develop a well knitted network with the state governments to
evolve up with a promising number of online newspaper wealth from the local
regions. They will not only be the best sources of information on the local
current events but will also help in exploring the way outs for the problems that
will be highlighted through the virtual mode of Tim Berners Lee, the
mastermind behind Web. The technological impact has to be accepted by the
states which have not yet tested waters with it in order to compete in this bit and
byte world which believes in access rather than ownership. Information access,
which has many a times been hindered because of the language problem, has to
be researched a lot in a country like India where diversity in languages changes
with every changing region. Newspaper companies have a vast field to explore
in terms of language diversity to come up to the expectations of the users. If they
will be in a position to provide access to their newspaper content in a
multilingual mode, that can solve one of the biggest problems of the news
Growth and Development of Online Newspapers 251
seekers. Not only regional languages should be preferred but languages of
international origin will also help in developing better access opportunities.
Collaborations with search engines like Google and Alta Vista that provide
translation service should be taken care of by the newspapers agencies to
eradicate the language barrier and to achieve a smooth communication.
The chronological growth indicates that the online sun is going to dominate the
newspaper industry in a virtual mode soon.
However, to build future it is very important to preserve past because future
stand on the shoulders of past. Digital preservation, which is an answer to this,
can help in combating the problem of preserving the past. Archives should be
maintained that can ensure preservation. Mirror sites should also be developed
by the newspaper industry in order to ensure long term digital preservation.
Users which should be the first priority of the newspapers industry should be
taken care of. Their needs should be catered in every possible way. In today's
world where we talk of e-content, e-paper policy should be adopted by every
newspaper that offers virtual access to the information.
Multimedia facilities like videos should also incorporated as multimedia has a
tendency to attract people especially the younger lot.
Web 2.0, which is a buzzing phenomenon in the digital world and has taken
hold, with more than 9.5 million citations in Google, (definition posted on the
Web on September 2005) 135 million citations as of February 2007 (O'Reilly
2007: 17) has not left a trace of it on majority of Indian online newspapers.
However, a meager number of online newspapers are adhering to this interactive
technology which is having a tendency to deliver rich user experiences. Where,
the world is moving towards Web 3 (also referred to as Semantic Web), a
number of Web based Indian newspapers have yet to evolve drastically with this
promising technology, i.e. Web 2.0.
The study clearly reveals that the future of online newspapers is bright not only
in the developed nations but also in developing nations like India also, provided
the Indian newspaper industry will take the online revolution in a positive
manner and this medium should be made more interesting by adding more value
added services that can act as an appetizer for the users.
REFERENCES
1. Boczkowski, Pablo J. 2002 The Development and Use of Online
Newspapers: what research tells us and what we might want to know. In
The Handbook of New Media: social shaping and consequences of ICTs.
Leah A. Lievrouw and Sonia M. Livingstone, ed. New Delhi: Sage
Publications
2. Chyi, H. I, and Lasorsa, D. 1999 Access, use and preferences for
Online Newspapers. Newspaper Research Journal, 20(4).
http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5002320220, accessed December
12, 2009
250 Digital Preservation and Access to News and Views
Twitter
Figure 5: Venn representation of Web 2.0 features of Newspapers
CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION
Online newspapers - 'the information highway' have established themselves as a
viable and promising publishing media. The study clearly reveals that there is a
flurry of growth of the online newspaper wealth globally as well as in India. The
main reason for their growth at a global level is directly proportional to the high
rate of growth in G.D.P which makes the High Income countries to give a better
output in terms of online newspaper wealth. However, a developing economy
like India is doing excellently in the online newspaper market because India has
also followed the voice, 'information for all'. In addition, India has jumped on to
Big Emerging Market (BEM) league. Furthermore, countries having high
Human Development Index (HOD also excel in online newspaper market
because a promising HDI takes into account how income is turned into better
opportunities. In terms of the state wise growth of online newspapers, central
government has to develop a well knitted network with the state governments to
evolve up with a promising number of online newspaper wealth from the local
regions. They will not only be the best sources of information on the local
current events but will also help in exploring the way outs for the problems that
will be highlighted through the virtual mode of Tim Berners Lee, the
mastermind behind Web. The technological impact has to be accepted by the
states which have not yet tested waters with it in order to compete in this bit and
byte world which believes in access rather than ownership. Information access,
which has many a times been hindered because of the language problem, has to
be researched a lot in a country like India where diversity in languages changes
with every changing region. Newspaper companies have a vast field to explore
in terms of language diversity to come up to the expectations of the users. If they
will be in a position to provide access to their newspaper content in a
multilingual mode, that can solve one of the biggest problems of the news
Growth and Development of Online Newspapers 251
seekers. Not only regional languages should be preferred but languages of
international origin will also help in developing better access opportunities.
Collaborations with search engines like Google and Alta Vista that provide
translation service should be taken care of by the newspapers agencies to
eradicate the language barrier and to achieve a smooth communication.
The chronological growth indicates that the online sun is going to dominate the
newspaper industry in a virtual mode soon.
However, to build future it is very important to preserve past because future
stand on the shoulders of past. Digital preservation, which is an answer to this,
can help in combating the problem of preserving the past. Archives should be
maintained that can ensure preservation. Mirror sites should also be developed
by the newspaper industry in order to ensure long term digital preservation.
Users which should be the first priority of the newspapers industry should be
taken care of. Their needs should be catered in every possible way. In today's
world where we talk of e-content, e-paper policy should be adopted by every
newspaper that offers virtual access to the information.
Multimedia facilities like videos should also incorporated as multimedia has a
tendency to attract people especially the younger lot.
Web 2.0, which is a buzzing phenomenon in the digital world and has taken
hold, with more than 9.5 million citations in Google, (definition posted on the
Web on September 2005) 135 million citations as of February 2007 (O'Reilly
2007: 17) has not left a trace of it on majority of Indian online newspapers.
However, a meager number of online newspapers are adhering to this interactive
technology which is having a tendency to deliver rich user experiences. Where,
the world is moving towards Web 3 (also referred to as Semantic Web), a
number of Web based Indian newspapers have yet to evolve drastically with this
promising technology, i.e. Web 2.0.
The study clearly reveals that the future of online newspapers is bright not only
in the developed nations but also in developing nations like India also, provided
the Indian newspaper industry will take the online revolution in a positive
manner and this medium should be made more interesting by adding more value
added services that can act as an appetizer for the users.
REFERENCES
1. Boczkowski, Pablo J. 2002 The Development and Use of Online
Newspapers: what research tells us and what we might want to know. In
The Handbook of New Media: social shaping and consequences of ICTs.
Leah A. Lievrouw and Sonia M. Livingstone, ed. New Delhi: Sage
Publications
2. Chyi, H. I, and Lasorsa, D. 1999 Access, use and preferences for
Online Newspapers. Newspaper Research Journal, 20(4).
http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5002320220, accessed December
12, 2009
252 Digital Preservation and Access to News and Views
3. Eveland, W. P, Marton, K., and Seo, M 2004 Moving beyond "Just the
Facts": The Influence of Online News on the Content and Structure of
Public Affairs Knowledge. Communication Research. 31 (1): 82-108.
http://crx.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/31/1/82, accessed December 23, 2009
4. Giles, Bob. 2000 Journalism in the Era of the Web. Nieman
Reports. Accessed February 2, 2010 from http://www.highbeam.corn/
doc/ I G1-71190366.html
5. Gul, Sumeer. Web Resources: Online Journals, Online Books and
Electronic Theses and Dissertations - A Wave of the Future. International
Journal for Technical Communication (IJTC), 2 (1)
6. Ingle, Bob. 1995 Newspapers vs. online versions: A discussion of the old
and the new media. Nieman Report, 49 (2).
7. Li, X, ed. 2006 Internet newspapers: the making of a mainstream medium.
New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
8. O'Reilly, Tim. 2007 What Is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business
Models for the Next Generation of Software. Communications & strategies,
65(1)
9. Peng, Foo Yeuh, Tham, Naphtali Irene, and Xiaoming, Hao. 1999 Trends
in Online Newspapers: A Look at the US Web. Newspaper Research
Journal, 20 (2). http://vvww.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5002320220,
accessed January 12, 2010
10. Riley, P, Keough, C.M, Christiansen, T, Meilich, 0., and Pierson, J. 998
Community or colony: The case of online newspapers and the Web. Journal
of Computer-Mediated Communication, 4(1). http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol4/
issuel/keough.html, accessed January 01, 2010
11. Tankard J. W. and Ban, 11.1998 Online newspapers: Living up to their
potential? Paper presented at the 81th annual meeting of the Association for
Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Baltimore.
12. Wurff, R. V. D, and Lauf, Edmund, ed. 2005 Print and online newspapers
in Europe: A comparative analysis in 16 countries. Amsterdam: Het
Spinhuis publishers
CONCEPT ANALYSIS OF NEWS FOR MINING
STRATEGIC INFORMATION
S um it Goswam i
and
V Senthil
ABSTRACT
A concept map provides visualization of the news events held over a period of
time by extracting the main concepts from the news dataset and how they are
interlinked A concept is a set of weighted words that generally travel together
throughout the text. This paper processes and displays the concept structure of
all science, technology and defence related news events reported in major
newspapers of India during 2008. The news dataset passes through various
stages namely identification of news dataset, preprocessing, concept
identification, concept editing, thesaurus learning, locating concept and finally
concept mapping so as to make it suitable for effective visualization. The output
of the process displays the main concepts in news dataset, identifies proper
names i.e. named entity recognition (NER) and generates a thesaurus from the
news events. Similar concepts are clustered together into themes. We also plan
to integrate a summarizer along with the concept map so as to provide a
summary of a selected news event from a concept map. The concept analysis is
done by measuring the presence and frequency of a concept which can be
explicit like words, phrases etc or implicit like concepts itself So as to identify
the starting point for defining the concepts, a concept seed word is extracted.
During the process of concept learning, a thesaurus is generated as a spin off of
the process. The various issues related to concept analysis and the appropriate
levels of analysis are also discussed in the paper.
Key Words: Conceptual Analysis, Content Analysis, Concept learning, news
visualization, text mining
CONTENT ANALYSIS
Content analysis is the process of determining the existence of a set of words
which may form a concept in a set of unstructured data like textual document,
blogs, emails etc. The analysis of contents supports identification of the text into
various known categories, which can be further used to establish a relationship
among each other. An effective analysis of content can lead to proper
understanding of the text and getting an insight into it. It may support
stylometric analysis of the text as well as authorship identification, demographic
detection, time stamping of the material and other quantification of the text data.
Content analysis involves a critical research path as it can lead to identification
of any communication form. Thus it can be used, for example, by social
IFLA International Newspaper Conference 2010

Digital Preservation and Access to

News and Views

CONFERENCE PAPERS
(25th - 28th February, 2010)

Editors
Ramesh C. Gaur
Frederick Zamdt
D. R. Gupta
Kavita Gaur

Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi

IFLA Newspaper Section
 Table of Contents
Physical Preservation of Newspaper Resources (Hardcopies Archives, Microfilm
Archives) the practices at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France
(The French National Library)
Else Delaunay 1

Following the Crowd: User Engagement and the Australian Newspapers Service
Experience
Cathy Pilgrim 10

Newspaper Digitisation in South Africa

Patricia Liebetrau 18

Newspaper Digitisation : A Silver Bullet

Deborah Novotny 25

Preservation and Archiving Solutions

Keith Rajecki 33

24 by 7 Digital Access to Newspapers: The Singapore NLB's Experience

Ngian Lek Choh 48

Improving Access to Digitized Historical Newspapers with Text Mining

Coordinated Models and Formative User Interface Design
Robert B. Allen 54

Newspapers as a Digital Resource National Infrastructure and Newspaper

Publishers — in Finland
Majlis Bremer- Laamanen 60

Connecting the Dots: How Researchers use their Library's News Resources
Debora Cheney 68

Building A 24x7 Newspaper Digital Library and Archives (Case Study of DNA —
Daily News & Analysis)
Anita Pujari 90

Digital Preservation and Access to Print Media Resources: Experiences at the Times
Archives and Knowledge Centre, India
Published by: Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts I?. Venkata Kesavan, Shankar Marathe, Salila Sreesan and
Prof. Vijaya P. Rajhansa 101
IFLA Newspaper Section
February, 2010 Newspaper Database Management at MICA's Knowledge Exchange & Information
Centre
New Delhi Shailesh R. Yagnik, Niraj R. Patel and Lavji N. Zala 115

Printed by: Om Laser Printers Delhi- 110009 Online Newspaper Reading Habits among PhD Students and Faculty Members in
Aligarh Muslim University
Naushad Ali P.M and Mohamed Musthafa K 127

Open Access Model for Libraries and Newspapers: New Roles and Convergences
Ajit Pyati 143

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