Last year was a big year for online journalism. Just ask Dan Rather.

In the heat of the elections, blogs brought a fresh new form of independent media. Blogs were a part of that, but only one part of the equation. Traditional media websites have also seen a lot of growth.

A recent report by the Pew Research Center says that 29 percent of Americans regularly received news from the Internet in 2004, up from 23 percent in 2000. The New York Times saw its web traffic go up 17 percent and traffic in certain sections skyrocket. Its national news, for example, saw 96 percent more pageviews in the last year.

While the editors of the Times are undoubtedly happy to hear they're reaching a larger audience, they're also likely nervous as online readers begin to outnumber paid subscribers.

With all this change happening in the world of journalism, 2004-05 Editor in Chief Jimmy Young and his staff recognized the paper needed to rethink its strategy for the Web. Young put together a proposal and then recruited Informaion Sciences and Technology (IST) majors Chris Bajgier and Stephen Clancy as Web interns charged with the task of producing a report that would take The Daily Collegian into this exciting new venture.

The interns started in January by getting involved in maintaining the website. Late at night, as other students finalize the next day's pages, they convert the pages into HTML files for The Digital Collegian.

While spending their nights working on the site, they spent their days discussing the project with Young, Collegian employees and students. In March, after returning from spring break, they turned in a 50-page report outlining the possibilities and suggestions for redesigning the Collegian website.

The current site is based on a design from 1999 that uses a tool called a web generator to create static HTML files. With more than 100,000 individual article pages, it is nearly impossible to impose site-wide design improvements.

Their plan now is to move the Collegian to a "dynamic site." In this form, articles will be stored in a database and pages will be dynamically generated as readers visit them. This can also make additional features like photography or related links more manageable.

After further discussion with the staff, they decided to go ahead with their plan and start development this summer. A new Collegian Web site could be up and running by the fall.

Initially they expect to continue what the current site already does. They have ideas about incorporating other features, such as blogs, as the site grows. In addition to technical changes, they hope to unveil a more aesthetically pleasing design for the site.

The other issue with the web is advertising. While this is not a technical issue, it is a serious concern. Working with the Collegian Business Division, they hope to increase the Collegian's online revenue significantly.

"The Web site will have to pull its weight in advertising, especially if students start reading online more than the print version," said Clancy, who had been a member of the Sports Staff before accepting the internship challenge. "That is why it is important to slowly implement our changes and protect the print paper, which provides nearly all our ad revenue."

"We hope to increase online advertising by targeting our current online audience: Penn State alumni and families outside of State College," said Bajgier. "We also want to develop an online business directory for students and visitors, which can also bring in more revenue."

The final element of the plan is to restart the Web staff. Their goal is to attract journalists interested in the Web as well as technical students, like IST majors, to get involved.

"As the project continues, we see the Web staff acting as a bridge between the News and Business divisions," Clancy said.

Along with revamping the internal operations and improve ad revenue, the Collegian plans to start building a web training program to make sure the system is properly maintained. The program will come under the News Division and training will be under the auspices of the News Training Program run by New Adviser John Harvey.

"There is certainly a lot of enthusiasm for getting a new web site up and running, but we are also being cautious to protect the newspaper," said Young. "We hope to slowly grow the website into a new outlet for the Collegian that will expand the paper's reach."