The HyperNews project aims at developing a hypermedia electronic newspaper system, based on agent technology, that will help the readers reduce the time spent searching for relevant information. It will also enable information providers to commercialize hypermedia electronic news articles in terms similar to those of printed newspapers. Characteristic aspects of the system include enforcement of copyright control and payment on a "pay per use" basis, establishment of intra- and cross-newspaper hyperlinks according to the interests of the reader and the ability for information consumers to compose their own personalized hypermedia electronic newspaper through a Java-based World-Wide Web browser. In this paper, we identify and discuss the issues related to the development of an electronic newspaper environment based on agents and draw the corresponding requirements.