The next big step in the evolution of Web shells is fleshing out traditional beats. Just as CJOnline determined what the "universe" of the Kansas legislature was for its readers, editors and reporters of local news organizations will plot out "the universe" of local beats such as health, education, politics, and consumer reporting.

		Ferreting out the data element of Web shells will add a new twist to beats that haven’t been traditionally data-driven.

Ferreting out the data element of Web shells will add a new twist to beats that haven’t been traditionally data-driven.

Let's take health as an example.

Many local news organization’s health sites or sections run nationally focused stories about the “disease of the week.” These leave readers wondering how that disease plays out in their own backyard.

Adding local databases to a health Web shell can provide continually updated information on the injuries, diseases and deaths people in the local community are most likely to suffer. Readers can obtain a clear picture of the health risks in their communities and make informed personal and public policy decisions. Reporters can mine this data to ask questions: Since there’s a high rate of lung cancer deaths in this community, should the city council ban smoking in public places to help reduce deaths? Since car crashes that involve high rates of speed are common, what needs to be done to enforce traffic laws? Since there are higher rates of asthma in the local Hispanic community than the Caucasian community, is there a disparity in health care?

This approach may change the way reporters and editors do their jobs:

• News organizations are likely to put more emphasis on types of reporting that aren’t currently on the fast-track to stardom.
• "For example, consumer news is a hard sell in a lot of newsrooms because it’s not going to win a Pulitzer," says Hal Straus, database editor and manager at Washington Post.Newsweek Interactive,  "but people really want to know objective information about what they’re buying or have bought."
• Journalists will do more data-driven stories about more "common" occurrences in beats that traditionally focus primarily on the unusual.
• Journalists will do less been-there, done-that reporting as readers demand more continuous coverage of issues, such as domestic violence and child abuse, that the data indicate are continually damaging a community economically and emotionally.