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Admission on opening day is free. Beginning Saturday, timed tickets are $20, seniors $18, ages 7 to 12 $13, free for children younger than 7. To buy tickets, call 888-639-7386, visit http://www.newseum.org or go to the admissions desk at the museum.

Insider Tips:

· Want to play with one of the eight "Be a TV Reporter" stations in the NBC News Interactive Newsroom (Level 2)? That's $8 extra. If you're old enough to remember the feature from the old Newseum (it makes a video of you delivering a fake news report), save yourself the money. One big improvement for the YouTube generation: Instead of a videotape to take home, you get a code to retrieve your clip online (and presumably post it to your Facebook account).

· If you even think you might be a repeat customer (and with so much to see, it's not a bad idea), consider buying an annual "Press Pass." The cost, which includes unlimited free admission to the Newseum and the "Be a TV Reporter" stations as well as a 10 percent store discount, is $75 for adults, seniors $50, ages 7 to 12 $25.

What's the most gee-whiz new technology?

There are two cool attractions included in the admission price.

The first is the "Ethics Table." The interactive quiz pits two teams answering questions about journalistic ethics, such as the following head-scratcher: "Your photographer has two good pictures of a candidate -- one flattering, one unflattering. Your newspaper endorsed her opponent. Do you use the unflattering picture?" That might sound like a question for "The McLaughlin Group," but trust me: The quiz, which uses Wii-like technology including mirrors, video projection and intuitive hand movements, is more fun than journalism school. Ethics Center, Level 2.

A second high-tech feature is "I-Witness: A 4-D Time Travel Adventure," an original short film that tells the story of three pioneering journalists using such theme-park technology as 3-D glasses, moving seats and blasts of air and water to create an immersive, "4-D" experience. Is it slightly cheesy? Heck, yes. Did I nevertheless jump out of my skin when female reporter Nellie Bly tossed a live "rat" in my "lap"? Um, no, that must have been the guy next to me. "I-Witness" repeats three times every hour in the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Theater. Follow the signs from either the Concourse or Level 1.

All this talk of live rats is making me hungry. Where's the food?

You'll find the Newseum's in-house eatery on the Concourse. A collaboration between celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck and Restaurant Associates (the folks responsible for the National Museum of the American Indian's well-received Mitsitam Native Foods Cafe), the cafeteria-style Food Section -- get it? -- features a menu that includes chicken fingers and pizza for picky eaters and such rotating "Puck's Favorites" as provencal king salmon. Entrees range from $5 to $14.

More-formal dining is available next door to the Newseum at the Source by Wolfgang Puck (575 Pennsylvania Ave. NW). Call 202-637-6100 for lunch or dinner reservations.

Insider Tip: