The notion that news gathering and analysis coming from traditional newspapers is better than what you can get on the internet is pure bunk.

I defy anyone to produce a traditional media outlet that has created content with 10% of the value of what we produce here at The Belmont Club.

There are really two functions of a newspaper: editorial (search and selection of topics) and content (writing and copy editing). IMHO, the fundamental problem with the newspaper model is that the content is a slave to the editorial. Reporters write about what their editors tell them to write about, or, at best, allow them to write about.

The internet has a much more flexible model:

You have editorial sites, like Instapundit and Drudge Report, that gather interesting writing from a variety of sources (some traditional media and some not). There is very little additional content provided; the value is the search-and-sort function provided by Glenn Reynolds and Matt Drudge.

You have content sites, like NRO and The Belmont Club, that produce original content. They have a writers – one or many – who pursue issues of interest to them, and for which they have knowledge and talent.

The Achilles Heel of newspapers is that the editors control the content. This has dramatically lowered the quality of newspaper content; writers write to the headline, much as teachers teach to the test. It means the narrative is a given, and the “facts,” to the extent any facts are used, are chosen for their alignment with what the editors want.

It also means that there is a downward spiral of writing quality. Editors have the only meaningful job at the newspaper, and they end up paying writers less and less. Monopolies only exacerbate this problem, since there they eliminate competition for good writers who develop a local following. That’s why reporters get paid so little, which then leads to fewer good people entering the profession, which leads to worse reporting, and so on.

This editorial dominance also loses readership. At the end, the only people who read the newspaper will be those who agree 100% with the editors. IOW, a bunch of lemmings. Not a great ad market, lemmings.

Newspapers are all going to die. The only questions are: 1) when, and 2) what takes their place. Not even someone as powerful as Nancy Pelosi can change this fact, although she might be able to impact the answer to those two questions.

Which is not a good thing.

L3