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Two of the sworn enemies of the media business agree on one thing: there is too much news. To even try to consume it, news needs to be “sifted,” “sorted,” “filtered” and “curated.”
Both Tina Brown and Michael Wolff use these buzzwords when they describe their news startups, The Daily Beast and Newser.com, respectively. Wolff says that the real value in a world of infinite information is sorting and filtering and Brown described her venture as curated content, typified by the interpretive scoop.
In this recent post on AlwaysOn, http://alwayson.goingon.com/permalink/post/31308 , Magnify.net’s Steve Rosenbaum quotes Wolff as saying that “There is no killer mass market news brand. No network news replacement. No trusted online paper. Nobody has yet to unlock the two key elements of general interest news — an efficient and entertaining experience — and combine them with all the new functionality of digital delivery.”
Newsy.com meets this description perfectly. Stay tuned for a new site design in the coming weeks – it’s based on our users’ feedback.
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Lately the blogosphere is buzzing about Wall Street Journal managing editor Robert Thompson’s complaint that Google devalues everything.
I agree with TechDirt’s Mike Masnick who argues that Google does precisely the opposite: It adds value.
http://techdirt.com/articles/20090213/0249023757.shtml
Here’s a quote from Masnick’s insightful rebuttal:
“Google doesn’t devalue things it touches. It increases their value by making them easier to find and access. Google increases your audience as a content creator, which is the most important asset you have.”
Similarly, Newsy.com provides users access to sources that they would not have discovered on their own. And because every story we produce creates two links back to the featured sources - one in the transcript and the other in the main title of the story - we are increasing the audience for the content creator.
Yesterday’s story, Climate Change “Exceeds Predictions
” features sources like NDTV and ITN that are not on most Americans’ radar screens.
What other sources should we be following? We’d love to hear your feedback.
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As traffic continues to build to Newsy.com, it’s eye opening to see which stories are the most viewed on our site. Last week’s video ‘U.S. Stimulus: Legitimate Differences’ struck a chord with viewers - clearly news about economic recovery is on the minds of many.
It’s a challenge to feel well informed on issues, especially partisan issues, from watching only one news source. After all, the Gallup annual Governance poll found that less than 50% of Americans have a great deal or a fair amount of trust in the mass media. And nearly half of Americans — including over 75% of Republicans and 65% of Democrats — perceive the media as biased.
The Newsy format is perfect for a story about partisan politics. in less than 3 minutes, you understand how media outlets from around the country and world are covering the story - so you can make your decision.
