The advent of the internet has posed threats as well as offered new opportunities for the traditional news media industry. The innumerable potentials of the internet include instant delivery of news, multimedia content and other user-friendly features to media consumers. Since digital news consumption is proliferating in India, it is important to study how Indian regional newspapers have adapted to new media technological advancements. Using Zamith’s (2008. 9th International Symposium on Online Journalism, 1–8) methodological framework, we identify various potentials of the internet that can be utilized by the traditional media offering news online. The study examines the extent to which Indian regional news sites have incorporated these potentials—interactivity, hypertextuality, multimediality, immediacy, memory, personalization, ubiquity, creativity and other latest new media technologies. Roger Fidler’s ‘mediamorphosis theory’ is employed as a theoretical approach to examine how regional language newspapers are responding to technological advancements. The study looks at three news sites of the most circulated Kannada language (a regional language of Karnataka state) newspapers. Our study finds that Indian regional news sites only partially use the internet’s potentials and are unable to explore some of the internet’s features due to their rigid organizational policies and a lack of multiskilled workforce.

互联网的出现给传统新闻媒体行业带来了威胁，也带来了新的机遇。互联网的无限潜力包括向媒体消费者即时提供新闻，多媒体内容和其他用户友好功能。由于印度的数字新闻消费激增，因此研究印度区域性报纸如何适应新媒体技术的发展非常重要。使用Zamith's（2008年。第9届国际在线新闻国际研讨会）（1-8）方法框架，我们确定了可以由传统媒体在线提供新闻的互联网的各种潜力。该研究调查了印度区域新闻网站在多大程度上利用了这些潜力，包括交互性，超文本性，多媒体性，即时性，记忆力，个性化，普遍性，创造力和其他最新的新媒体技术。罗杰·菲德勒（Roger Fidler）的“媒体变形理论”被用作研究区域性语言报纸如何响应技术进步的理论方法。这项研究着眼于最流行的卡纳达语报纸（卡纳塔克邦的一种地区性语言）的三个新闻站点。