The Irish Times was among the first newspapers in the world to establish a site on the World Wide Web when The Irish Times On The Web went online in late 1994. The company has now initiated a new project which will result in major development of its Web site and also offer a new online product. This product, a daily digest of the newspaper delivered by e mail, is being offered free for a trial period and those interested can e mail itwired.itronics.ie or telephone (01) 6719066 for further details. The e mail digest is aimed at business people on the move as well as other Irish people abroad.
The newspaper's WWW project will undergo a major facelift in the near future with many more features from the print version, including the crosswords, being included each day. The service will also shortly move to a six day publishing cycle. Both The Irish Times On The Web and The Irish Times E mail Digest will be available early on the day of publication.
Though The Irish Times is the only newspaper in the Republic with a Web presence, both the Belfast Telegraph (http://www.netcmico.uk/beltel/daynews.htm) and the Irish News (http://www.irishnews.com) have recently launched e mail editions. A subscription based online version of the magazine Hot Press is also available at http://www.ioi.ie/hotpress/
In Britain, there are numerous newspapers with online editions and experiments. The Daily Telegraph's Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk) set the standard, but the Times, the Daily Mirror, the Guardian, the Scottish Daily Record and the Glasgow Herald are among those experimenting with online editions. There are many sites with links to newspapers throughout the world including http://www.mediainfo.com and http://www.demon.co.uk/eurojournalism/eurolink.html/
. Joe Breen is Editor, Electronic Publishing, at The Irish Times.
jbreen.irish-times.com