The blank space in media: between newspapers and blogs

I have never thought that “big media” was going anywhere because of blogging. I certainly hope that I’m right, because newspapers are the only ones doing any actual reporting anymore.

Twitter and blogs are great, but they don’t often go beyond “personal experience” of an event or news item. I think that’s a very important thing for our society.

Now what interests me is how newspapers are going to change as their business shifts (as it will) over the next 15-25 years to be primarily based online, or at least in some form of digital delivery.

Right now, online, we really have two circles of media: we have blogs and we have newspapers. But there is a negative space in between those two. There is a balance that we have not yet found, which will follow neither the rules of the classic newspaper nor the free-flowing spirit of the blogosphere.

Something that has good journalism and a comments section. Something that has live updates, but needs an editor. Something that has multiple sections instead of multiple categories. Daily writers and long form pieces, but news articles that can be presented in the first person.

This is the space where newspapers are going to have to go.