How the Big Boys Cover Iraq

Let's begin with the Michael Jordan of newspapers, the New York Times. The homepage for the Times is leading with print stories on Iraq. They have two Iraq stories on page one and both do not offer multimedia options. However, multimedia coverage is available toward the bottom of the navigation bar on the left-hand side. If you type "Iraq" into the multimedia search bar at the top right, results will come up including slideshows and video clips.

Second in line, most would agree, is the Washington Post. On their homepage they are also leading with a print story, but only one, as opposed to the Times' two. It seems that the news superpowers are sticking with old reliable when it comes to coverage of big stories. However the Post, like the Times, has options other than print. In the upper right-hand corner of the homepage there is a link for live Washington Post radio, which offers 24/7 discussion of the war and other related issues.

The Boston Globe actually buries their online coverage of Iraq. One has to scroll down quite far on their homepage to get to the "World" news section. Once there, it's clear that the Globe is very organized and straightforward with its war correspondence. They lead with a link to a print story and follow it with audio, visual and video options in that order.

The trend continues with the Los Angeles Times, our very-own Hartford Courant and the NY "tabloid" papers, the Post and Daily News.

All of the above choose to play it safe with print stories hitting at the top of the order. It seems as if all of the major publications are reluctant to throw their audio and video coverage upfront, which is expected from all except maybe the Post and Daily News.

Perhaps one day things will change, but for now, print stories are still the cream of the crop. Multimedia is rising, but it's time off the bench is limited.