Following on from Tom M’s mention of Spot.us, the New York Times has an article on the organisations that may well end up replacing it. Local news websites like VoiceOfSanDiego.org are looking to beat both the current newspaper and web news models by returning to solid original journalism on the matters that matter:
“Voice is doing really significant work, driving the agenda on redevelopment and some other areas, putting local politicians and businesses on the hot seat,” said Dean Nelson, director of the journalism program at Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego. “I have them come into my classes, and I introduce them as, ‘This is the future of journalism.’ “
The problem being that, currently, online advertising doesn’t provide enough income to run a proper newsroom, even with the lower overheads of the straight-to-web model. But will that always be the case? I’d be a lot more tolerant of internet advertising if I felt I was getting decent content as a result of it.
Here is a New Mexico example: http://eyeonalbuquerque.blogspot.com/ also probably not close to earning its keep.
There’s also The Zonie Report in Phoenix, AZ, though it does seem to be connected to Phoenix Magazine. We can hope it’s hundred-flowers time in journalism.
I wish all these start-ups well, but one cautionary note: Big-money advertisers influence news content to a degree that I think a lot of readers would find surprising.
Meant to include the URL for Zonie Report, which is, surprisingly: http://zoniereport.com/