The Internet is journalism’s future, but issues need to be resolved before newspapers can mine the full potential of new media, especially in the areas of Web site subscriptions and advertising.

While newspapers have responded to technology by posting breaking news on the Web and using it to present large volumes of data in engaging, interactive ways, the newspaper industry has been unsuccessful or slow in applying new technology to the business side of their operations.

Newspapers should develop better advertising strategies and reconsider the subscription model that failed a few years back, said H. Iris Chyi of the University of Arizona and one of four panelists who discussed newspapers and the promise of new media in “Digital Picture: The Economics of Online Journalism and Advertising.”

Chyi also said many newspapers discovered that consumers were unwilling to pay for news on the Internet when so much of the Web’s content is free.

“I think newspapers are going to be around, but they have to think of other strategies for different markets,” said Gracie Lawson-Borders of Kent State University.

Lawson-Borders said that eBay is a giant advertisement that caught newspapers by surprise. She said an eBay-styled approach would have served newspapers well because many have lost advertising to the Internet and private and public advertising Web sites.

Lawson-Borders recalled that in a college newsroom someone told aspiring journalists who want to break into the business that “newspapers are business – big business.”

“I say, media conglomerates are business ¬¬– big business,” Lawson-Borders said. “They want to make money online. They do.”

She offered advice for media moguls that she thought was essential.

“To me, the confounding variable is human nature. We want to figure out what they want to do,” she said. “You should think, ‘If I want to stay in this business, I’ve got to deliver you more than newsprint,’” she said.

Peter Gade of the University of Oklahoma said that technology and media devices affect how we use resources, and it would pay to look ahead like eBay did.

Gade said that newspapers shouldn’t fall into the old mass communication business model and that there should be “strategic repositioning.”

“Newspapers are still trying to be everything to everyone,” Gade said.