‘Hyperlocal’ Web Sites Deliver News Without Newspapers -from NYTimes.com
“They rely on pulling data from other sources, so they really can’t function if news organizations disappear,” said Steve Outing
“In many cities, the local blog scene is so rich and deep that even if a newspaper goes away, there would be still be plenty of stuff for us to publish,” said Adrian Holovaty
In a brief twitter exchange with @steveouting he revealed that the single quote in the NYT article is out of context of a long conversation he had with the NYT reporter. So there is no battle between the two. Having read his blog and articles for a long time, I believe him, but the NYT set up his quote and the entire article as a battle of old versus new.
In my interview with Montclair, New Jersey news blog Baristanet.com, cofounder Liz George sees no problem blogging without newspapers. See the excerpt below.
RI- Some statements have been made that blogs are not real journalism and that if newspapers die, so does journalism. If traditional newspapers went bankrupt would it hurt or help your business? How would you adapt?
LG- I certainly don’t want to see traditional newspapers go under, but I don’t think journalism dies if they do. I’m an NYU J-school grad, and I think newspapers that survive will find a new identity in response to the Internet. As far as blogs not being “real journalism,” I think a lot of blogs, including ours, commit random acts of journalism on a regular basis. There are many instances both locally and nationally where blogs are breaking stories before “traditional journalists.” Still, covering all the news a traditional newspaper might cover isn’t always the full-time job of the blogger. In the case of our site, in addition to reporting news, we are looking for ways to entertain, elicit comments, link to national or state stories but with our own local twist, create and build a community, incorporate social networking tools, reunite lost dogs with owners, deal with offensive commenters, solicit our readers for opinions with polls and other interactive features.
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comment #2 is outside.in founder Mark Josephson
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