To have a staff of correspondents reporting around the world isn't cheap. But I think it's worth it.
I think in order for newspapers to survive, people have to learn that they need to pay. Advertising alone isn't going to pay the bills.
I personally think that charging people money for things on the internet isn't such a crazy idea. ;-)
Obviously you don't really need a journalist for every newspaper being situated in different parts of the world. I understand why they do it, but the problem is that they are often forced to compete with local citizens with cellphones, twitter, citizen journalism etc.
Most people don't really read news for the good journalism, they read it for the value of reading news.
How well this news is being written is in my mind secondary from that point of view.
But obviously it's not so simple. I just don't buy the argument about good journalism.
It's still not quite the same as reading a well written, unbiased, in-depth analysis of a story in The Economist or The New York Times (or even Al Jazeera).
Sure, there's a large market for "news-tainment". But I think there's also a market for high quality journalism.
I'm also tipping that people are more likely to pay (and pay more) for the latter too.
I do however have quibbles with the idea of unbiased journalism.
Personally I prefer highly opinionated pieces, but that's another discussion :)
You're right about unbiased news though. It's a myth.
You really need to make up your own mind and read various sources to get some balance. I'm pretty sure all news has some inherent bias.
Opinion is fine, but don't try to make out like it's real news. Techcrunch is a major offender here.
Everything is at the end of the day interpretation. I would rather know what peoples stance are whether I agree or disagree than to read something that is stated as the truth.
Are we using different definitions here or do you genuinely believe somebody arguing that Steve Jobs is a worthless sonovabitch is being evenhanded?
The Wall Street Journal and the Economist successfully taught their readers this lesson.
The field is moving to much more federated-ness very quickly. People will not pay. Newspapers will not survive. Sorry.