With the release of the Clinton report on Friday, newspaper executives got a lesson in Internet publishing they have been trying to learn for the past three or four years.

The report proved two things. One: The Internet has become a primary news source in combining the best television and newspapers have to offer -- immediacy and detail.

Two: The Web needs more capacity. Associated Press on Friday reported that Web surfers hoping to read Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's report online got stuck waiting to get into sites such as MSNBC.com, which is owned by NBC. The site was getting more than 300,000 hits a minute.

The report was available in full at many sites (thomas.loc.gov/icreport; house.gov/icreport; access.gpo.gov/congress/icreport; house.gov/judiciary; starrtext.ap.org; netscape.com; yahoo.com; and aol.com).

Newspapers have been mulling over what to do with the Internet, seeing their prime weapon in the battle against television stolen away by companies that were not even into publishing news a few years ago.

There are a lot of companies that only publish on the Web. I'm not saying that hard copy newspapers won't be around in a few years.

People will still need them. But more and more people are turning to the Internet to get up to date news and more detail than newspapers can provide.

The Web in effect has unlimited space. Newspapers are constrained by how much advertising they can sell, and how much people want to carry around.

Right now newspapers are still important because they're still convenient to carry.

Immediacy -- television's forte -- is the Web's other power. The Wall Street Journal has decided to go both ways. Its print edition is published as usual.

It also updates the Internet site regularly throughout the day with on going stories. The editors have also taken the stance that if a reporter breaks a story before other media -- the news must immediately go on the Internet. That way the Wall Street Journal remains the first to publish the story, and thus attract paying visitors to its site.

And the strategy works. More often than not these days other news agencies refer to the Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition when stories are broken for the first time by the newspaper.

Whether The Royal Gazette and the twice-weekly Bermuda Sun will take the additional step of publishing on the Internet before the hard copy comes out remains to be seen. The fear is that the Internet will cannabilise the readership of the hard copy.

Both publications essentially publish all of their content on the Internet.

Both are quick to view because the companies have rightly taken the stance that speed of access to the stories is more vital than a good looking graphics intensive site, which slows readers down.

The Bermuda Sun (bermudasun.org) was the first newspaper in Bermuda to go on the Internet. While I was there I had a hand in establishing and developing the site, learning the cut and paste method of Web design on the fly.

The site has come a long way since it began in 1995. The site has tourist information through the content of Bermuda Weekly. The major link is to the Bermuda Telephone Directory in which you can search for the telephone number of any person or business listed in the hard copy. Island Press, which owns the Sun, publishes the telephone directory.

A key feature is the ability to search all of the Sun's editions going back to December 1995.

The Royal Gazette (accessbda.bm) is broken down into daily news from the newspaper, a Sunday section, classifieds, and information about the company.

The Sunday section is subterfuge. It's the content of the Mid Ocean News which is published on Friday.

Unfortunately stories only remain on the site for a short period, maybe a week before they're no longer available. There is no search engine for a library of stories.

The Insiders' Guide to Bermuda, a tourist publication which The Royal Gazette created, is also linked to the site.

Both publications, like others on the Web, are attempting to figure out how to make money from their content. Classified ads are one way in which newspapers can make some money. But right now the Internet is a hole into which money is being poured. It's not a big investment, but it's one in which the newspapers will eventually have to justify to their boards and their shareholders.

I think the two newspapers will have to go whole hog and actually devote some editorial staff to add content to their sites. While there's an audience in Bermuda, the real money could come from overseas viewers -- those with an interest in the Island, and those who are thinking of visiting.

This is the audience that might be willing to pay money for content they can't get anywhere else so easily. The changing hard news will be important. But it will be the unchanging content that people will really want.

For example the newspapers could build a bank of restaurant reviews. When someone wants to get a credible opinion on a Bermuda restaurant they can visit the site, after perhaps paying a small sum for a day pass, a weekly pass or a yearly pass.

Advertising could help pay for the Internet sites but then you begin to lose speed, and increase customer frustration.

The sites could also have reviews about tourist sites in Bermuda. Have reporters visit sites and describe what they're like and the best ways to get there. Interactive maps are also an area newspapers are exploring to draw visitors to their sites. At boston.com I was able to type in where I was staying and where I was going and get a street by street description of how to get to my destination.

The possibilities exist and many newspapers and other companies are busy exploring them. The problem is nobody seems to be making money yet -- although reportedly the Wall Street Journal is breaking even.

Until all the publications figure out how to make money from the Internet, content hungry hounds like myself are enjoying a lot of great reading and information for free. Yahoo! Pun intended.

*** You thought the next breakthrough in technology is the melding of the television into the computer into an Internet machine. Instead the microwave has taken over. NCR Corp. announced last week it is developing a Microwave Bank. The machine is a microwave oven that now only cooks dinner, but gives access to online banking, shopping, E-mail and television. The microwave can scan bar codes and send a shopping list to an online shop.

The machine won't be available for a "few years'' according to NCR.

OLD AND THE NEW -- Newspaper readers in Iowa were able to buy an extra edition of the Des Moines Register on Friday (above) containing news of the Starr report. Others, like Alan Manzano of Los Angeles (left), read the Internet version of the report in a cybercafe. Manzano waited for over two hours to gain access to the report, which could lead to President Clinton's impeachment.