Journalism students from a Kenyan university pose for a photograph with UPI.com’s editor-in-chief, Michael Marshal during the International Young Leaders’ Summit in Nairobi. UPI.com is an online publication of the United Press International. ()

The emergence of the new media also referred to as online publications elicited mixed reactions in newsrooms across the world as well as from different players in the journalism profession.
As much as internet itself was a welcome invention for the simple reason that it made communication and access to information much easier, the emergence of online publications has not been a darling to many journalists who see it as a threat to the age-old form of journalism – the newspaper.
Proponents of the online journalism would like to make us believe that the newspapers are living their very last days but the truth is that we will still be stuck with this medium for a very long time. As much as internet publications are very common in the west due to accessibility of internet services by majority of their populations, in many developing countries mainly in Africa, South America and Asia, internet still remains a preserve of the rich and middle class who constitute a very small percentage of these countries’ population making internet publications available to very few people.
In Kenya for instance, out of the hundreds of media houses in this country only six media houses have online publications namely: The Standard Group (www.eastandard.net and www.ktnkenya.com), The Nation Media Group (www.nation.com and www.youtube/ntvkenya), Capital fm (www.capitalfm.co.ke), Homeboyz Entertainment (www.homeboyzradio.co.ke), Ghetto Radio (www.ghettoradio.co.ke) and Kentv.net (www.kentv.net). All the above media houses apart from Kentv.net also have traditional forms of media with their online publications mainly targeting Kenyans living abroad.

Due to the fact that most publications get a greater percentage of their revenue from advertisements, it will be very difficult for the media in these countries to convince their advertisers that advertising in their online publications is a worthwhile venture as only a few percentage of the populations will access the internet.
Internet publications should therefore not be seen as alternatives to the traditional media but rather as a complementary media or just another form of electronic media that does not seek to eliminate the traditional forms of broadcast and print media. Due to the increasing popularity of online publications it will be important to media owners who are yet to embrace the new media to adopt it so as to reach audiences and readers from allover the world as this media is neither limited to availability of frequencies nor circulation agents. This way both online and print publication will be here for a very long time …even forever.
Journalism and media training institutions especially in developing countries should also include training in online journalism as part of their curriculum to ensure that their graduates are fully conversant with new trends in the industry.