"Newspapers are a mile wide, but an inch deep. The Web is all about depth,"
content guru Wendy Sexsmith told attendees at last week's PR NEWS/Canada
Newswire Strategic Online Communications Seminar in Toronto. Sexsmith is chief
Web producer for Canada's Globe Information Services (the electronic affiliate
of The Globe and Mail).
Online content is usually more detailed and full-bodied than print stories,
and it's archived, she added. (Read: negative press coverage does not go away
once the paper goes in the recycling bin. Users can continue to access stories
for several months after they run.)
A big advantage online is that erroneous information can be fixed seamlessly,
said Ken Wolff, executive producer of CBC News Online. Unlike print, correction
notices don't get buried in the back where no one will see them.