News organizations rely on Internet to tell the story

January 24, 1998
Web posted at: 8:50 p.m. EST (0150 GMT)

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The White House sex scandal story shines light on tawdry allegations about President Clinton, but the shocking tale is a shining moment for Internet news coverage.

News about the story first appeared Monday on a Web site called the Drudge Report, and that sent journalists scrambling to confirm the story.

It all started when The Drudge Report passed along rumors that Newsweek was debating whether to run a story about secretly recorded conversations in which Monica Lewinsky, a former White House intern, apparently claimed to have had a sexual relationship with the president.

Ever since, the story has been covered around the clock by television networks, magazines and newspapers on their Web sites.

The Drudge Report, an off-beat news and gossip site, reported that Newsweek was investigating how Lewinsky came to the attention of Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr.

Newsweek had been researching the story for months but wasn't ready to print it.

Peter McGrath, Editor of New Media Newsweek

"The story was not ready to be published. Not every 'T' had been crossed and not every 'I' had been dotted," said Peter McGrath, editor of New Media Newsweek.

The story broke early in the week and Newsweek was stuck. The next issue of the magazine wasn't going to be published until the following week.

So the decision was made to put the story on Newsweek Interactive's page on America Online. It was posted on Wednesday evening.

"This tidal-wave journalism is breaking around you, so what do you do with it?" McGrath said. So the Internet version was on AOL four days before the magazine would hit the stands.

"In a way, they were sort of robbed by the Internet and saved by the Internet at the same time," said James Ledbetter, a media critic with Village Voice.

The Washington Post -- owned by the same company that owns Newsweek -- was one of the first news organizations to put the story to paper. While the newspaper was going to print the story was also posted on the paper's Web site.

As the Washington Post hit the newstand, the same Clinton scandal story could be found on their Web site

Doug Feaver, senior editor for news at the Post Web site, said the paper is not ready to scoop itself by releasing the story first on the Internet.

"You could argue that we scooped ourselves the other morning, but it was a very close; simultaneous publication in many ways," Feaver said.

McGrath doesn't see Newsweek Interactive routinely scooping the magazine because the key money-maker is still the magazine.

But Newsweek and the Post say that the Internet enhances news coverage; allowing them to update stories between editions and provide more in-depth coverage.

CNN Correspondent Ann Kellan contributed to this report.

Related sites:

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• Drudge Report
• The Washington Post

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.

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