From The America Scene comes this article concerning what needs to be done to fund journalism. The article actually takes the stance that local reporting and journalism is part of what needs to go. Peter Suderman, the post’s author, writes that:
Let’s be even more blunt about what it takes to survive in the media world: You have to have information no one else has. That information has to be information that people need or want. And you probably have to charge people for it.
Conor wants to find out what sort of losses are coming with the decline of journalism. If he can answer that (no small task), my next question is: How much is what we’re losing actually worth?
For most of the last century, at least, the newspaper business has been incredibly successful. And as a result, it’s gotten used to certain luxuries — largely in the form of interesting but inessential news coverage, and, of course, the salaries to pay for it.
Put candidly, there are a lot of journalists out there doing work that doesn’t need to be done, that isn’t worth what it costs to produce.
Seems to me that he is essentially arguing for journalism to become something that orients itself toward the needs and desires of advertisers. Frankly, I find this a scary proposition. News organizations already filter enough of their content to make it more profitable and appealing to advertisers; I would hate to believe that the solution is to have more of this.
Link via Funding Journalism | The Media | The American Scene.