It's called using the medium

Howard Owens says "Let's stop putting the entire newspaper online."

Especially check out his list of what a better community news site would look like. He includes lots and lots of multimedia. I don't work on a local media site, but on a trade vertical and I agree. What you want to put online (OK, in addition to articles) are things a reader can't get on paper.

To Owen's list of videos, blogs and databases, I'd add maps and quizzes and things that let a user do something, not just read something. Let 'em click those mice, not sit on their hands like zombies. Use the medium.