News Websites in 2016

Posted on May 10, 2006

The Wall Street Journal has an article about what the perfect news site might look like in ten years. The WSJ asked readers about what they would want on a futuristic news website. Some reader wants include fewer ads and less animated ads; more-telegenic news reporters; filtered news content and more audio and video content. Readers of the future will also want to be able to access the content anywhere -- not just on a website. This is already beginning to happen today with RSS feeds and mobile technology.

The perfect news Web site won't be just a Web site. "It will literally be in the palm of our hand," wrote one reader. Today, millions of people retrieve news over cellphones or Blackberry devices, but that's just the start. The next generation would have a hard drive, a bigger screen and a better "input device."
Another reader foresees news sites morphed into directories of information: "Instead of clicking on pages, there will be a hierarchy of news by section (world, national, regional, business, sports, lifestyle)."
Still another idea would make news sites portable - with content moved easily, by the user, onto other sites, such as those of brokerage firms. "Instead of having to duplicate my holdings all over the Web so I can get customized news from various sources, I would login to my secure [brokerage] account and there I would find, alongside my portfolio, links to WSJ news and articles."

Another comment suggests that as web news includes more video, more photogenic reporters will be needed.

There's just one thing: If news sites are going to turn increasingly to video, they are going to have to pay attention to appearances. "By 2016 we will doubtless see more 'pretty faces' in the pressroom than we do today. ... I predict that Dow Jones & Co. will be adding cosmetic surgery to the roster of employee benefits."

A lot of these ideas are already in play and will happen well before 2016.