No traditional media presences online adequately accomplish this. While there have been many strides in usability, redesigns by organizations such as The New York Times, CNN and MSNBC have failed to significantly integrate the hyperlink (both in form and function) into their content presentation. On the local level, news outlets' online efforts have been even more convoluted and less successful.
  In the growing online news market, it's not enough to present one's own view of the facts. Media outlets must provide a comprehensive perspective of the facts, even if this means offering competing coverage side by side.
  Traditional media outlets cannot and will not succeed online until they understand the fundamental nature of this new environment. In the online world, no one Web site is the only stop for a user, and if a Web site makes it difficult to get to the next stop, people will abandon it altogether. But as many news Web sites stand now, it is not only the next stop that is made difficult, but the first stop, as well, because of complicated, overwhelming, and nonintuitive designs and structures.
  Amid this fundamental lack of understanding by many traditional news outlets, other organizations such as Wikipedia have thrived. Through their truly interactive and comprehensive nature, and by focusing on simple design and easy-to-navigate structures, these Web sites have embraced the potential of the Internet in a way that no newspaper has come near.
  But there also is a danger in ignoring the wisdom and truths that have been gained by the journalism industry during its long history. Despite the centuries-wide technological gap between the two formats, the Internet still most closely resembles the newspaper, and we should not forget what we have learned about presentation and hierarchy, or community involvement and local emphasis. This separation is why many new-media outlets have failed to truly ascend in the public eye: They favor the technology over the journalism and allow their sites to become overwhelmed by the Internet format.
  Giant Hawk Media's purpose is to find the balance necessary between the Internet and the newspaper. Only through blending the unique strengths of both the Web and traditional journalism will any news outlet thrive online.
  TheDigitel.com is our attempt to find this balance, and our efforts will be an ongoing conversation between us and the communities we serve, the communities of which we are a part.