Traditional news organisations venturing into the Internet would have to recognise that online consumers behave starkly different from normal consumers, said renown technology columnist Jeremy Wagstaff.

Speaking at a forum titled 'What will 'next generation news' look like last night', Wagstaff described online consumers as "niche audiences" and thus redefined how news are presented to them.

"What we're seeing is that people have access to information and they are really showing what they are interested in," Wagstaff ( photo ), who presently writes for The Wall Street Journal and the British Broadcasting Company ( BBC ).

Unlike traditional media consumers, said Wagstaff, online consumers are no longer passive and would not only be able to interact with media organisations but also produce their own content.

However, traditional media organisations backed by professional journalists would still be the driving force behind the discussions that take place among a more interactive consumer base, stressed Wagstaff.

"What we're seeing on the Internet is not a revolution against the values of 'old media'. It is a revolution against the notion that the media can dictate what is news," said Wagstaff.

Ad money going online

Former senior advisor to the World Economic Forum and current director of Development at the Media Development Loan Fund Patrice Schneider ( photo: middle ) in his presentation pointed out that media organisations can no longer ignore advertising revenue generated from the Internet.

"If we look at the United States today, the top brands are Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL. What's most worrying is that the top 10 companies control about 50 percent of the advertising market," said Schneider

He foresees that there would be four online business models for news organisations: Websites to market offline media content; websites purely to sell digital media content; subscription-based websites; and finally a 'community based' media distribution model such as ones seen in social networking websites.

The forum last night was organised by Earth 247 in collaboration with government-owned Multimedia Development Cooperation (MDec) and Technopreneurs Association of Malaysia (TeAM).

It was attended by about 80 participants ranging from media organisations representatives, academics, bloggers, venture capitalist, entrepreneurs and government officials.

Earth 247 is a work in progress of global social networking webportal based on next generation news.