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EVANSTON, Ill. -- Delivery of news will continue to evolve but its heart -- the journalist's ability to find and analyze information then turn it into news -- will remain a constant.

That was one of the few things all seven members of the closing ONA conference panel agreed on when asked to go "Back To The Future" on online journalism. Their predictions were as disparate and intertwined as the media they discussed and the organizations they represented.

Moderated by outgoing ONA president Bruce Koon, the "super panel" included Leonard Apcar, editor in chief, The New York Times on the Web; Richard Deverell, head of News Interactive, BBC News; Esther Dyson, chairman, Edventure Holdings Inc.; Mitch Gelman, senior vice president and executive producer, CNN.com; Ruth Gersh, editorial director, AP Digital; Retha Hill, vice president for content, BET.com; and Dean Wright, vice president and editor in chief, MSNBC.com.

Several panelists predicted a boom in video-based news as more homes acquire high-speed Internet connections. The change offers a chance to capture a new audience, said the Times' Apcar.

MSNBC.com tapped into that hunger for video during the Iraq war as office users with high-speed access kept tabs on the war without leaving their desks. That access "enabled people to be involved in a way they weren't before," said Wright, Far more visual information will be available online in the future, he added.

That visual information, along with sound and text, needs to go online in "bite-sized" portions, said the BBC's Deverell. Audiences may spend 15 minutes following a story online but they tend to do it in five-minute increments. To serve those viewers, he contended, stories should be broken down into short, interlocking yet autonomous units that can provide viewers with specific information on demand. Breaking stories down on the front end also allows the flexibility to deliver content on devices ranging from cell phones and PDAs to those yet to come.

Apcar suggested a similar breakdown of traditional, linear stories into discrete, audience-selected parts. Hill said her BET.com audience wants more control over the stories they consume.

"Increasingly, this audience wants a say in how the ending turns out, rather than letting gatekeepers decide," she said.

But Dyson, the bona fide futurist on the panel, argued that fragmentation does not always make a better story. "You end up with a jumble of impressions rather than an understanding," she said.

Despite the plethora of technology that makes it easy for non-journalists to acquire and disseminate information, several panelists said journalists and good news writing will always be in demand.

"You're always going to need some synthesis, some analysis," Apcar said. "As long as we have a sharp eye, we'll have an audience."