David Letterman's nightly "top ten" lists come from the Home Office in --where is it now, Wahoo, Nebraska? -- but ours comes all the way from FULL TEXT FOCUS' "branch office" at the University of Hawaii College of Business Administration in Honolulu, where Professor Richard E. Peterson researches, among other topics, full text on the Web. In fact, in Professor Peterson's latest class, Economic and Financial Environment of Global Business, students receive no paper handouts (they're Web-posted instead), and they are expected to use the Internet to conduct research for class projects.

    In addition to the Top Ten, browsers visiting the professor's site (http://www2.hawaii.edu/~rpeterso/index) will find his more comprehensive lists of online publications under the categories, "Online Newspapers, Many With Searchable Archives," and "Online Magazines." These are complemented by links to lists compiled by others: "Asia Online Newspapers" (http://www.ntu.ac.sg/ntu/lib/asian.htm) and "International Newspapers" (http://www.ntu.ac.sg/lib/n-select.htm).

     It wasn't that long ago that we were asking "where's the beef" on the Internet. But now, established quality publications around the globe are sharing Web space with all the homegrown, fly-by-night 'zines and vanity sites. This is why the Top Ten is so appealing -- we want quality, not quantity, in this HTML-crazed world. In fact, it was his lengthier lists of publications that led Peterson to come up with this cream-of-the-crop for business and news researchers. Tracking every Web-based publication "becomes a maze of confusion," he told me. "You just don't know where to start." I can't think of a better place than right here.

THE CRITERIA

     Peterson's criteria for consideration for the Top Ten were simple and to the point:

• Does it have a searchable archive?
• Does it have comprehensive coverage of business as well as national and international news?
• Is it free?

     Note that there is nothing here about good graphics or even value-added features not found in the print edition -- these have quickly become a requirement for Web-based publications and are no longer the market differentiators they once were. Instead, these simple criteria indicate that we are all concerned with serious research here, and that we want global coverage of both business and general news. A fancy search engine is not as important as quality content (note the Business Week entry), and the fact that we want to keep it free shouldn't be so surprising. The majority of Web content is free (of individual subscriptions fees) and we have come to accept online advertising banners as our part of the bargain, just as we did with television decades ago. Three of the ten do, however, require user registration, and at least two have made implicit or explicit suggestions that some sort of fees are coming down the road. Here is the Top Ten, in alphabetical order.

BARRON'S

Barron's, published weekly by Dow Jones & Company, provides investment information and analysis to both individual and institutional investors. In-depth articles on companies and industries, as well as interviews with CEOs and investment professionals, are surrounded by a substantial amount of market statistics. Peterson cites Barron's Online for its hyperlinked reference material. Company names mentioned in articles are hyperlinked to their corresponding "Barron's Dossier," a company profile including directory information, total return, and industry comparison, recent articles from Barron's and other Dow Jones publications and newswires, and a Tradeline snapshot of recent (36 months) stock performance. The charts and graphs are colorful and legible both on-screen and when printed.

     Through the use of frames, basic menu options are available on every screen, including Table of Contents, Company Index (which leads to the dossiers), Barron's Archives (the search platform), Market Day (Barron's compendium of stock market statistics), Marketplace (which features nothing but ad banners), and the obligatory Help link. The search protocol is as complicated as it needs to be, with simple Boolean and date limiting commands, and with the added help of ticker symbol searching.

BUSINESS WEEK

     The world's best-selling business magazine and winner of the National Magazine Award for General Excellence for two of the past three years, Business Week, published by McGraw-Hill, recently added this Web version to its collection of online vehicles (see FULL TEXT FOCUS, June 1995, for coverage of Business Week on America Online).

     Business Week Online is posted every Thursday night, including the full text of the complete U. S. and international editions, including tables, graphics, and some photos. Value-added features include BW Plus! (a topical article library), Daily Briefing (current stock market information), BW RadioNet (hourly market news updates in the RealAudio sound format), and an archive.

     The archive doen't yet meet Professor Peterson's criterion for a searchable archive. At the time of writing, the archive -- including selected articles since October 1995 -- is in browse mode only. A complete five-year searchable archive is promised soon, but what's this about "offering several purchase options?" Business Week better watch out or it might get bumped from this illustrious Top Ten.

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR

     This site, dubbed e-Monitor, is brought to you by the same organization that publishes the print Christian Science Monitor and the "Monitor Radio" program on public radio. An 87-year-old daily newspaper, the Monitor covers national and international news with its own editorial staff and does not rely on wire services. e-Monitor is an electronic manifestation of the traditional product, but it is much, much more.

     e-Monitor is a true multimedia experience. In addition to the text of the daily paper, which includes pictures, graphs, even maps -- full coverage of the day's Monitor Radio program, as well as hourly newscasts -- are available via RealAudio. What's more, the paper's daily crossword puzzle is posted in an intriguing, screen-editable format (a "beginner" option displays incorrect answers in red!) so while you're reading in one window about Iron Curtain exiles returning home to struggling democracies, you can use another window on your PC to solve clues like "Camping item, possibly" -- all the while listening to an in-depth feature on French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac through that little speaker inside your computer.

     Seriously, though, e-Monitor is a substantial research resource. The archive (complete text) goes back to 1980 -- perhaps the deepest full-text database on the Internet. (Jacques Chirac, for example, shows up in 258 articles.) e-Monitor uses the Personal Library Software database platform, allowing complex searches. Users can choose to search using keywords, relevancy, or fuzzy logic. Field searching is also available to those who read the Search Help screen.

ECONOMIST

     This is perhaps the greatest example of quality overruling quantity in our search for the Top Ten. In stark contrast to the Christian Science Monitor, the Economist's Web site provides -- what would be a polite way to say it? -- a less than comprehensive searchable archive. Jacques Chirac is nowhere to be found, and we know how well the Economist covers European politics. Bob Dole only produced 16 hits.

     To be fair, it says right there on the welcome page that this is an "experimental" new site that promises more content in the future. For now, we are very content to read selected articles and the Economist's famous "leaders" (editorials), such as the one on the cover in October, "Why the Net Should Grow Up." Just having the Economist on the Web helps the Net do just that. There is also a link to its topical "survey" -- a series of in-depth articles on subjects ranging from the software industry to British politics.

     Founded in 1843 to support the cause of free trade, the Economist continues to thrive as "a weekly news and opinion newspaper offering reporting, commentary, and analysis on world politics, global business, finance and economics, science and technology, and the arts." Its appearance on the Web in 1996 allows searchers fast access to current, quality business and general news.

FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW

      When this 50-year-old Dow-Jones publication appeared on Dow Jones News/Retrieval for the first time in 1994, I wrote

The Far Eastern Economic Review isn't the weighty organ its name suggests, but it is a full-text source of substance -- published in Hong Kong, its beat, as the name suggests, is the entire Far East. This broad and macroscopic coverage is focused in each issue with in-depth, microscopic views of the region's countries, and their individual and common issues. There is an emphasis on business and economic news and analyses, but there is as much Newsweek as Business Week in the Far Eastern Economic Review (FULL TEXT FOCUS, October 1994).