joshuago’s Bookmarks

An excellent and entertaining backgrounder that should be required reading for anyone trying to solve the problem of funding journalism in the Internet age. Historical review of how newspapers came to be, how they started off brazenly partisan, moved to being produced by a professional elite, and split out again on the Internet. Touches on a fascinating reference to Walter Lippmann and John Dewey's competing visions for journalism.

What we discovered, of course, was that innovation survived the death of its institutions. High tech companies didn't own innovation; the innovators did. News organizations don't own journalism: journalists do.

Rich and powerful people will always get their news. When trying to save investigative journalism, one challenge is to fight the fatalistic notion that the masses -- or public opinion, depending on who you ask -- do not deserve to be informed. Public opinion cannot be avoided, but in a democracy we're better off if public opinion is informed. The press will be necessary and can continue as long as it can still serve the public.

The idea is Deal Brokering. You use your knowledge of the local scene, your brand and your contacts to negotiate group deals with local businesses from bars to restaurants to dry cleaners. The businesses offer big one-time discounts to attract new customers, your audience gets access to great deals, and you broker the deal on your site and get a substantial cut of the money. It’s already happening around the country.

Collection of Mac style widgets written in Java.

We have created an independent newsroom, located in Manhattan and led by some of the nation’s most distinguished editors, and staffed at levels unprecedented for a non-profit organization. Indeed, we believe, this is the largest, best-led and best-funded investigative journalism operation in the United States.

When a newspaper moves online, the bundle falls apart. Readers don’t flip through a mix of stories, advertisements, and other bits of content. They go directly to a particular story that interests them, often ignoring everything else.

An overview of the major problems facing journalism today, and an exploration of potential funding models.

Journalism students must understand how to build audiences by propagating their work on the Internet. They will have to be sufficiently entrepreneurial to leverage the openness of interactive publishing to ensure that they can build remunerative and satisfying careers. This means they'll have to establish themselves as experts in one or more specialties to build identifiable personal brands. They will be on their own to monetize those brands.

Health care heals, but it also kills. Someone who lacked insurance over the past few decades might have missed taking their Lipitor, but also their Vioxx or Fen-Phen.