A recently released report from the The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press indicates that the Web is beginning to make some impact on the news business as it begins to cover the U.S. political campaign season. The two big winners: Cable-based television news outlets and Internet-based news sites both increased four percent in overall viewership over the past two years, though notably this represented a 44 percent increase in the Web's share over 2002 (13 percent versus 9 percent), compared to a 12 percent increase for cable's share (38 percent versus 34 percent). So although overall share is still fairly low, the rate of increase is quite impressive. The Web's ability to act as both a breaking news source, a social network and an interactive research tool that allows users to ferret out more detailed information makes it an ideal medium for "political junkies" who want to keep abreast of the most exciting developments. and, as evidenced by Howard Dean's highly web-centric campaign efforts, for political newcomers open to political messages delivered in a new way. Sadly, though, the losers in this equation are local politicians and people trying to reach least-common-denominator audiences, as local print and TV outlets plummeted dramatically in usage and Network TV dropped most of all - Cable TV outlets now lead network TV in overall share for political coverage, 38 percent to 35 percent. The Web does give people more ability to form organic communities of committed interests, but it still lacks the all-reaching tone that broadcast outlets have enjoyed for so long. For those trying to concentrate on the substance of candidates' messages, that may yet prove to be a good thing.