SNEAK PEEKS

In what can be seen as a new weapon in the always-competitive new media wars, the Boston Globe recently began posting teases of stories on its web site the night before the paper hits the stands.

Within the past week, nightly visitors of boston.com may have noticed the new banner at the top of the web page that, on a Thursday night for instance, reads "From Friday's Boston Globe" followed by the headlines of three stories being printed for the next day's paper. Clicking on the headline will take the user to the local news blog where they can read the first few paragraphs of each story.

The banner proclaiming the early stories usually appears around 10:30 at night and disappears as soon as the new edition is put online.

The Globe has done some great things with its boston.com site, from its coverage of the five-year anniversary of September 11 to its Spotlight team investigation into the world of debt collection. But as the Globe focuses more on boston.com, what does its site's newest feature mean for the industry overall? Is it foreshadowing what is to come in the newspaper industry? That newspapers will switch to publishing solely online sooner than most experts thought?

Stay tuned.