Agreed, journalism has become tremendously more diffuse. The need for aggregators is vital. It all comes down to public trust in brand. Unfortunately, many traditional journalism products have squandered their brands over the last 20 years with shoddy and biased reporting. But there are still excellent products; I pay for the WSJ and Daily Variety, for example, while I would not read the LA Times if they paid me.
One can argue that journalism is and will remain mostly entertainment, for other than local politics, stock market tickers and weather reports, isn’t most news inconsequential to our daily lives? So we purchase those writers who entertain us most.
The rise of Fox News, talk radio and Internet bloggers redefined where the journalistic political Center is in this country. Almost overnight traditional journalism outlets, who were convinced they defined the political Center, were stunned to find they were further out on the Left.
