Research conducted by Frank N. Magid Associates strongly suggests that viewers/users in all demographics hunt for other news websites to stay current on a big story after they initially watch the story on local TV news.

"If the broadcast networks were the dominant way people found out about it -- and they were -- as time went on, the Internet began taking more and more of people's time, and it wasn't the broadcast networks' Web sites that they went to. They went to Yahoo," Mr. MacKenzie said.

"That's where we think the vulnerability is on the TV side: To be a news brand today, you need to be a news brand of equal import on all platforms," he said.

"While the television brand continues to occupy the No. 1 space for breaking news, it does not hold the No. 1 space for how to access information about that breaking news over time," he added. "It gives way to more convenient sources, which include the Internet, which are dominated by the Internet."

So the goal should be to retain as many viewers as possible by staying current on your website and not lose your viewers to other news websites. You could start by aggregating content on this one important story -- related links and story angling are always good ways to hold your users. Committing a Web Manager to cover and drive the story, like the Executive Producer of the newscast does, would be another.