Over the next six months, the beeb, a new BBC division will roll out at least eight e-zines, or Web programmes, to give them a TV or radio analogy. The beeb is part of BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC which makes money selling programmes abroad, which gives a good indication of how Auntie views this new Internet medium - as a revenue-generating opportunity.

At the little lunchtime soiree which the BBC's online luvvies held in Kensington to announce their plans, the air was full of the smug satisfaction that surrounds a group of people who know that their time has come. These are technically savvy commercially aware creatives, not hardcore netheads with a penchant for facial topiary. And they know that being a technically savvy commercially aware creative is mainstream hip like it's never been before. Indeed, they even have a new Government which surrounds itself with such "meeja" people. Leaving aside that that includes being pals with erstwhile spawn of Satan Rupert Murdoch, they are basking in the sense of arrival.

That the BBC should get involved in the web is no mystery. After all, the web is nothing special, just another medium. And the BBC already has the highest of reputations in TV and radio and is no small player when it come to print publishing either.