Paul Bradshaw, a fellow E-Media Tidbitter, wrote about the Guardian’s database driven fantasy football (Paul is from the UK — “soccer” to us in the USA) as a good example of how newspaper organizations can make their websites into desirable platforms for users, as well as simple destinations.

Furthermore, he makes an important point about how providing data which can be manipulated by users, makes the data more powerful than simply “interactive.”

This makes it communicative. Because you are not just toying with data but creating it to make a point.

via Databases | Online Journalism Blog.

Communicative information is a good way to describe a new kind of authorship or creation made possible via dynamic, interactive tools like the fantasy football games. You could argue politics, but use real election data to demonstrate a point. Scenarios and simulations are powerful educational tools, and news organizations should work to “own” some of them in order to attract users who come to play with data, but will stay for news on their sites.