Mind you, I wrote this post largely from a reader’s point of view. If I were running a news site I’d want plenty of content going up there every day too. News sites are hungry beasts that need constant feeding – the more you post, the more people come to see it, the more easily you can sell advertising. And there are viewing peaks – news sites get surges of visitors at around 8am, lunchtime and 5pm and they try to make sure there’s plenty of content up there for those readers to keep them coming back.

The question is whether flogging journalists in a traditional newsroom is the best way to keep feeding the beast over time. Another is whether selling advertising is the best way to support the operation.

A third is to consider how news audiences might change as more people spend more time online immersed in the sea of information that is the internet. We go to news sites for news because we’re familiar with the news companies and with the concept of ‘the news’. But what about the children growing up now who will never read newspapers or watch the 6pm TV news, what will their concept of ‘the news’ be?

I know what you mean about having to work to find what you want on news sites. Did you try searching for the columnist by name? Was that any quicker? Also, do you subscribe to her RSS feed? It’s the simplest way I know of getting a particular writer’s work delivered whenever a new piece appears – delivered to your feed reader, that is.

The internet is full of boxes. Let me tell you about the “unpacking” I did this morning.

I wanted to read a column by a newspaper writer. First, I went to the box called the paper’s homepage. Then click to the box “Columnists.” Then to the box with the writer’s name. Then to the box with her most recent column.

Why don’t more newspapers treat columnists as separate brands?

You are, of course, quite right. The news doesn’t come in boxes. Though oddly, journalists working on online media tend to get managed as though the boxes still exist. I know of one youngster who is expect to file a particular kind of story with a set length by a fixed time each morning. Another newsroom expects journalist to write x stories per day and (lord have mercy on their wicked souls) “process” x press releases.

Perhaps media managers need to stop thinking in boxes too.

I generally stay clear of newspapers, tv or radio news. I just can’t be bothered. And your explanation about having to fill the boxes just made me realise what it is I avoid: pointless stories about crime and disasters and misery…

Thanks again.

Perhaps rationalising the machinery of news production will allow for a return to what news should be about – the collection of information and analysis.