Idol chatter: Mel Gibson scoop heightens profile of Web's star news site TMZ.

WITH newspapers slowly losing readers to the Internet, and cable TV audiences split along partisan lines between 24-hour news channels, a lot of media executives wonder about the future of the journalism industry. If they want a glimpse of what news gathering in the future might look like, they should check out TMZ.com.

Recently the TMZ site made--news itself by breaking the details of Mel Gibson's arrest for drunk driving. But it deserves more attention for its business model: After only eight months online, it had 10 million unique visitors in July.

General Manager Alan Citron believes old-fashioned journalism, rather than new technology, accounts for the site's success. "We're a hybrid--a traditional news organization in the progressive environment of the blogospbere," he says. "This is one direction news coverage is headed. It's so immediate. We don't have a deadline--we report the news when it happens, even in the middle of the night or on holidays. That immediacy has a lot of appeal both to the people who gather the news and those who read it."

Hard news approach or not, TMZ's fodder is a world away from Edward R. Murrow. A recent day's home page headlines included Nick Lachey landing in Sydney sans girlfriend, Larry King bumping a car as he pulled out of a Beverly Hills parking lot and Paris Hilton reading "The Art of War" for an MTV promotion.

The Gibson story exemplifies TMZ's methodology. While other sites focused on gossip or the pack-journalism story of the day, TMZ staffers received word from a source about the Gibson arrest before anyone else had heard of it.

From there, the newshounds took over. Other news organizations quickly reported the arrest, but TMZ kept digging to uncover the anti-Semitic tirade and the cops' handling of the incident. "No one else was as tenacious in reporting the whole story," said Citron.

According to Harvey Levin, former producer of "Celebrity Justice" and managing editor of the site, "TMZ is an experience that combines text, video, photos and polls." Indeed, in contrast to traditional journalism--where words and photos are created by different systems and conjoined at the end of the process--TMZ stories are often based on an accompanying video or celeb photo.

"TMZ is devoted to a new style of entertainment journalism, focusing on the unadorned side of celebrity life and entertainment culture, rather than the red carpet and the promotional circuit," according to the company. "Stories are told with a fresh, Web-centric combination of editorial, still photos and videos."

In addition, the site has blogs from Levin and Claude Brodesser, host of National Public Radio's entertainment program "The Business," as well as a growing archive of paparazzi photos.

While Citron concedes some people may not feel Britney's pregnancy qualifies as news, TMZ shows that "if you have the right resources you can have an impact."

TMZ maintains a newsroom staff of 25, including three photographers. Citron said TMZ augments their work with agency photos and only rarely uses freelance writers or submitted materials. Citron also said that TMZ eschews "checkbook journalism," and never pays for information or leads.

TMZ stands for "30-mile zone," an old show biz term for the radius around Hollywood where most movies and TV shows are produced. As a joint venture between AOL and Telepictures, both units of Time Warner Inc., TMZ seems a natural candidate to become a TV show. Jim Paratore, president of Telepictures, confirmed that a TMZ project has been discussed, but there's no time line or format decisions made yet. For celebrity-watchers, the question is whether the site's "fresh, Web-centric" style can translate to TV.

BY JOEL RUSSELL

Staff Reporter