IF CONTENT IS UNIQUE AND GOOD, THEY WILL COME

Internet publishing isn't so hard once you realize a few things: plan carefully what you're going to do and maintain the quality of the one-of-a-kind information you provide

Find a niche, employ good journalists to provide complete, timely news, marshal financial resources and commit to a goal of building communities.

Sounds like a recipe for a good newspaper, but it may come as a surprise to many print journalists that the same qualities make for a good Web site as well.

Several journalists working with online newspapers shared their experiences with colleagues as part of a workshop called "Untangling the Web."

Though much of the session was devoted to technology and the mechanics of establishing Web pages, Mark DeCotis, online services editor for Florida Today in Melbourne, reminded newspaper people to stay true to their mission.

"Unless basic tenets of journalism are met every day, people aren't coming back," DeCotis said. He emphasized the importance of doing something unique, providing Internet users with information they can't get other places. Florida Today provides comprehensive news from the Kennedy Space Center to an international audience. It is updated at least twice daily, every 15 minutes when a launch is imminent. He and one other staff member work full-time on the project.

In Atlanta, on the other end of the spectrum, 33 staffers work on a number of sites serving various special interests. The current hot topic, said Nancy Nethery, managing editor of Interactive Studio at the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, is the Olympics. Not surprisingly, the site is attracting international notice.

But the Atlanta newspapers are doing much more on the net. One site provides insight into legislative issues and another allows readers to interact with the newspaper's editorial board, Nethery said.

"It's an opportunity to build communities," she said, urging her colleagues to seek out what is important to the people who will be accessing the sites.

The Greensboro (N.C.) News & Record has been into online publishing for 15 months, offering information that supplements coverage in the newspaper. In addition, the newspaper's online staff designs and maintains sites for advertisers.

Speaking from some experience, Pete Fields, the newspaper's electronic services coordinator, said users are looking for news-oriented information that goes deeper into subjects and remains current, some of the same things readers want from a newspaper.

Fields stressed the importance of having a plan before beginning an Internet presence. Getting it going is just the beginning. Maintaining it day after day is the hard part, an assertion that brought agreement from other panelists.

Chris Kouba, managing editor of InfiNet, an Internet service provider for newspapers, got down to the nuts and bolts of building a Web site. But he, too, stressed the importance of planning. "Do some thinking about what you want to do online," he said.

Kouba outlined the three aspects of production of an online newspaper: people, programming and support. The challenge with personnel is the issue of whether to integrate the effort into the newsroom with the people who gather the news. Programming involves automating the process and support touches on computer hardware and software as well as training.

He estimated the cost of establishing an Internet presence as representing a wide range, from a low of $2,000 to $2,500 using an existing PC to a high-end workstation costing $25,000 and up. The decision about whether to host the site at the newspaper must be made, with the costs and headaches going up significantly for those hosting the site.

Many newspapers have formed partnerships with Internet providers who take over this function, though the important part is finding a partner who is reliable. The panelists discussed avenues for generating revenue on the web, ranging from selling space to creating web sites for advertisers, as Greensboro is doing. The key here is trust. Fields said that's what has drawn customers to the newspaper's effort.

Several of the panelists commented on the value of classified advertising and its particular adaptability to web access.

Web technology carries with it some of the same challenges any new venture presents, panelists said. But that shouldn't scare journalists.

"We own the content," DeCotis said. It's just a matter of finding the best way to present it.

Silverberg is executive editor of the Florence (Ala.) TimesDaily.