Nashville News Blog

I still pickup a print paper, but generally only to do the crossword puzzle (hint hint, Nashville Scene). The rest of my news comes through an RSS reader.

I think subscription models have the most potential versus pay-per-view. How many people view cable television as a necessity versus on demand programming? I would actually pay some amount of money for access to an RSS feed from a local news source that earned my money by vigorously investigating and reporting on goings on in the local community. I would not pay any money for the content of the current Tennessean or Scene. The new sources most likely to survive are those that embrace disseminating their content in as many ways as possible and that make sure that content is exclusive or otherwise unavailable from other sources. Real courtroom reporting, legislative reporting, etc. On the internet, specialization over generalization, every time.

(I, by the way, work for a successful "new media" company.)

Most of the papers that are failing are doing so because they have failed in their duty in being the watchdog of the public's interest. Instead they became partisans for the Democratic party and thus lost their credibility. Look no further than the Obama campaign or the global warming propaganda campaign to see what I mean. News organizations that maintain a balanced view like the WSJ, Economist, and Fox News will continue flourish.

Laker, you actually made a couple of reasonable, or at least potentially viable points, which you completely undermined with statements so absurd that I'm wondering if you're kidding. Your first sentence in particular has some validity.

But global warming propaganda? Seriously? No reputable scientist in their right mind suggests global warming is not a real and serious concern.

And then, as news organizations that maintain a balanced view, you cite WSJ, which I will agree presents a relatively balanced, if slightly right-leaning, view. But then you say The Economist, which is widely accepted on all sides to be an example of advocacy journalism, just like The Nation or Mother Jones is on the left side of things.

But Fox News? You can't be serious. Even most people I know who lean right find Fox to be a laughingstock. I'll be the first to admit MSNBC leans left, but if you can't see Fox leans so far right that it's practically lying down, anything else you say is suspect.