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"It emerged that people were trapped in their homes. Within minutes it's quite possible that some of them were looking at pictures of themselves on the Brighton website.

"By mid-afternoon, reporters and photographers made it through to a scene of devastation in the East Sussex town of Uckfield. It was the first real indication that this was a major disaster. The river had drowned the town centre. Cars were floating away and rescuers had to whisk people to safety by lifeboat.

"Nearby Lewes, the county town of East Sussex, was cut in half as another river burst its banks.

"For the newspaper, that was tomorrow's big story. For the TV it was the evening news bulletin. For the Argus' internet operation, This Is Brighton & Hove, it was already old news. From digital camera and mobile phone to publication takes about five minutes. While editing takes time, there's no reason to wait for every last detail. You publish each take as it comes in, then revise and publish again every time there's an update.

"The website content must have changed 100 times over that one day. But by the time people struggled home to watch the evening news, many of them probably saw and learned nothing new. They could get up to date from their desk at work whenever they wanted. By 4pm there were already five pages of pictures, from aerial views to flood refugees at rescue centres. The website probably helped many people get home with as little trouble as possible.

"The aftermath lasted several days. There were dramatic rescues, flood alert updates and human interest stories. People knew where to find them first. The number of page views for the website doubled. It earned a link from the BBC news website - one of the few in Britain to take online news seriously - for five days. People across the world contacted the photographic sales department after seeing our unique pictures, all linked to order details.

"When the newspaper decided to publish a picture souvenir edition it took several days to prepare, print and distribute. The website made sure everyone knew it was coming with a healthy dose of advance publicity."

He added that some people have expressed concerns that breaking stories online could undermine newspaper sales, but so far there's no evidence of that.

He concluded that the Evening Argus' approach to internet journalism was still in its early stages but already offers "a full seven-day up-to-the-minute news and sport service with a depth of coverage broadcasters can only dream of".