What Kind of News Does the Net Need?
James Fallows:
Scheduling Notes, Plus 'Net Needs News': Today is "Net Needs News" Day, meant as a reminder that the net-based news ecology is great, as long as a "regular" reporting-based news-gathering structure survives to supply info. I've examined this problem last year and this year in the magazine...
I really am not sure.
Look at http://washingtonpost.com/ right now. The lead economic story is Robert Samuelson, "Europe’s recovery at the abyss." Where is the value added in the article?
The net-based news ecology would do absolutely fine without it: "Greece could tip Europe into crisis" is not news, is not analysis, is not insight.
The second story is by Alan Fram covering a speech by Cass Sunstein at the American Enterprise Institute. There is nothing in it that you couldn't have gotten from a one-pager from Sunstein's office.
And there is Marjorie Censer "‘Insourcing’ effort still under fire despite Pentagon’s gradual retreat from plan."
On the business-economy page http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/, we have Howard Schneider, "As the host of November’s summit in Hawaii, the Obama administration is trying mightily to restore the relevance of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum." We have four stories from Associated Press. We have links to Ezra Klein (who is excellent) and Steven Pearlstein (who is excellent).
For my issues, I think Bloomberg is a very valuable input into the net-based news ecology. I think that Associated Press is valuable. There certainly is an important role for Ezra Kleins and Steven Pearlsteins and aggregators and curators to play.
But otherwise? The value added is not coming from the "regular" reporting-based news-gathering structure. it produces: "Obama proposes revamping regulations to aid businesses", "Greece could tip Europe into crisis", "‘Insourcing’ effort still under fire despite Pentagon’s gradual retreat from plan", and "As the host of November’s summit in Hawaii, the Obama administration is trying mightily to restore the relevance of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum."
Until newspapers figure out how they have gotten themselves into a box in which, as one senior journalist told me, "on the average day I learn more from Ezra Klein's weblog than from the entire national news staff of the New York Times," they will have no idea how to climb out of the crate into which they have crawled.
