You know, news? The kind that was reasonably clearly focused, and that came to you in a reliable way?
I find myself thinking about this because I keep seeing things happening around me that are disheartening. Yesterday I went over to my local rural store to buy my Sunday papers. Only to find out that I can no longer buy the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram because apparently Downsville is too far away to get delivery. And I can't get it delivered to my house either. Cutbacks. So the only paper I can get now is the Dunn County News (which is okay, but pretty darn local and limited in scope). If I want the Leader-Telegram, I now need to drive to Menomonie to buy a copy. Can this be good for their already-dwindling advertising revenue?
To our west, the Twin CIties papers are struggling to keep any staff worth mentioning. To the south, the Cap Times has become primarily a web-only enterprise. And today I read that Wausau is losing its cable access channels due to budget cuts. This is probably just the beginning of cuts in that direction. Newspapers are cutting left and right, and hardly any newspapers are now maintaining a reporting staff outside their immediate distribution area. Some are having trouble keeping reporting staff at all.
I miss newspapers. I miss coverage of world events in a meaningful way. I love maintaining this and other forums - but I know that the blogosphere is going to have a really tough time replacing the ever-shrinking traditional media.
News is quickly becoming the domain of Fox News, TMZ, and (imagine the possibilities) even less reliable news sources. Everyone else seems to be finding it hard to survive.
Paritcularly discouraging is the fact that I am in continual discussions with others on this topic -- and frankly, I've heard no proposals for fixing this that sound plausible or that are likely to happen. If you have any great ideas -- write 'em down here.