Although only five years old, the network of online editions published by Guardian Newspapers Limited of London has already won many international publishing awards.

Much of the credit for those awards goes to its director of digital publishing, Simon Waldman, a former freelance print, radio and trade journal reporter. He joined The Guardian in 1996 and became its Internet editor two years later. Since 1999, Waldman has been the head of Guardian Unlimited, the newspaper's online operations.

Waldman takes a futurist's view of the dependencies of newsprint and online editions.

"The question is a very neat argument: Some bits of it are valid, but not its whole. You have to look at what is going to happen [from] 1990 to 2010, the bigger perspective," he said. "Our industry is embarking on something unparalleled, something beyond the steps that newspaper companies took spinning off radio and television stations during the previous century.

"We haven't yet seen a pound for pound value that the Web has given versus print. But we're in the middle of a transition that ends when print dies out ... We're just before the meltdown."

"The value and relationship that printed newspapers have had with their audience has been just that single number of readers. Each reader has brought one value, a value per head," Waldman said. "But the newspaper industry is no longer about the print product, but about a tapestry of news products.

"When newspapers go forward with the Web and other new media, they create new types of values and relationships with people. ... Each new value will be much different than in print. It may be much lower online but it ties the consumer closer to us," said Waldman. "The Web is just one step on this new value ladder."

He said that Guardian Unlimited has been building this value ladder product by product, sector by sector, allowing consumers to choose their own rungs on that value ladder. (New York Times Digital CEO Martin Nisenholtz last year outlined a similar 'value pyramid' plan.)

"The smarter newspapers will see the print, online, and wireless editions as a whole and manage accordingly." Waldman said. "It's clear that the whole will have the value."

Can all this come to fruition before printed newspapers decline too far?

"We haven't yet seen a pound for pound value that the Web has given versus print. But we're in the middle of a transition that ends when print dies out," Waldman said. "When publishers no longer have to buy, print and distribute paper. We're just before the meltdown."

Waldman said the recent recession hurt the still-young online publishing industry. "It was like suffering the plague after birth," he said.

"But like a child, we're now just getting into the real interesting stages. We're no longer a cash drain to our parent, although we're yet to be providing them with any monies.

"We're often asked when our Web site is going to break even. If you look at the whole, that question is superfluous -- particularly at a time when print editions of newspapers are losing hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands of subscribers per year."

To Waldman, the purpose of online publishing goes beyond simple profitability.

"The reason why The Guardian has been a British newspaper is the restrictions of paper. Now, we can build something beyond those restrictions," he said.

"For example, even though we don't distribute printed editions there, The Guardian now has regular readers in Seattle. Online has created relationships with new consumers. That's an audience that was unimaginable for us prior to the Web site."

But do those distant online consumers have any economic value on Guardian Unlimited's new value ladder?

"We're trying to figure that out. It's nicer to have a new audience and then try to figure out how to make money off it than it is not to have any new audience. Now is the time for us to be creative," Waldman said. "We always say that this is a long-term strategy."

As for the infrequent, short visits of the average newspaper Web site user, Waldman believes that averages just aren't important. "Some consumers will want to read the whole newspaper and some want a quick contact. They can now look at your print edition for a half-hour daily or at your online edition for a minute daily, whichever better suits their needs and lifestyles."

Waldman said online publishing is still evolving. What will be new in the immediate future? "I think 3G [mobile phones with broadband Internet access] and micro-payments are important."

"I wouldn't put the need for a micro-payment solution in any three-year plan, but it's certainly a need within 10 years.

"Digital editions are still an experiment. We're making do with HTML, but the success of digital editions show that people want better layouts than that," he said.

"You'll see that the newspaper business, print and online, will be radically different in 2010."