Anticipating a possible future method of multimedia newspaper design and delivery, a study examined the interface among people, modality (paper, computer, multimedia), and three types of news story (news, sports, entertainment). Subjects, 55 undergraduate students enrolled in journalism classes and 20 university library employees considered as "expert" searchers, were asked to search for specific information from three different stacks of stories, each stack containing four stories. The search path was recorded and evaluated to determine the number of search errors. A significant effect was found for search time as a function of modality. The multimedia condition had the longest search times, followed by computer and paper. Yet, only 13% of the subjects chose to view the digitized video as a search strategy. Story type was a significant factor. The sports story had the shortest search time, followed by news and entertainment. The sports story had the fewest search errors, followed by news and entertainment. Findings suggest that locating information in an electronic environment seems to take longer than finding information on paper, and that users need to be convinced that searching digitized audio and video may be a productive strategy. (Contains 81 references, 3 tables, 11 figures of data, and 4 notes.) (RS)