'What are the essential components to a good newspaper website?'

I got a message college listserv today from a designer who is looking to score an online news job. They posed the question of what are the "essential components of a good newspaper website?" and what are your favorite online news sites.

I responded that no one newspaper website is the same, as most have different audiences, which call for different functions.

I did say that newspaper websites need to optimize their content to be found by search engines and they need to make their content shareable. But those are pretty much the biggest overall items I thought of.

What do you think?