Slow adaptation
Regional newspapers owned by large companies enjoy economies of scale by developing centralised systems for their websites.
This means that newspapers in a media group generally share the same website infrastructure. Control of the website is out of the paper's control.
A worker bundles newspapers after printing Programme leader in magazine journalism at Sunderland University Alex Lockwood is critical of this system citing it as a reason why newspapers haven't adapted online.
"Overall, regional media has been slow to adapt," he said. "That type of centralisation of control doesn't work.
"It saves economies of scale but it doesn't work in terms of rapid response to how you use online. I think they're slowly getting used to the sense of you can't control things centrally just because of economies of scale."
"Sea change" coming
Editor at the Southern Daily Echo Ian Murray says the measured approach to introducing newspaper's web content has been the "sensible approach" while journalists have been reluctant to adapt.
"If you look at purely local levels, the best websites for news, interactivity, telling you what's going on, videos, sound bites are your local newspaper's [sites]."
Mr Murray says newspaper websites can be used to drive readers to exclusive content in the paper's print editions.
Editor Dan Mason says there will be a "sea change" in how local journalism is practiced in five years.
"In the space of five years journalism will change more radically than at any other time in the last half a century, without a doubt. And what lies at the heart of that is online and it lies in the democratisation of online communication."
Large media companies may find it hard to adapt but smaller independent local news providers may be more agile and capable of adapting to new technologies. Read>>
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