DMGNew Generation of Investigative Reporting
I'm going to regret posting this. After all, I haven't even read the article, let alone vetted the thing. But since I was all impressed with Clay Shirky's thoughts on the subject, here's a little counterpoint via Techdirt: Investigative Journalism Done Better, Faster And Cheaper Without Newspapers.
Talking Points Memo has been quite successful with its investigative reporting, which does a lot to leverage its community to help out in the process, while still employing full time journalists who are doing tremendous investigative reporting -- which should only improve as better tools are created to enable more to be done. The first link in this paragraph also discusses another example, the Voice of San Diego, which does local investigative reporting, and was funded by a bunch of local businesses that felt there wasn't enough investigative reporting locally.
So, my reasons for buying Shirky's argument may have been groundless. It may be that investigative reporting is not expensive, and maybe even big papers don't put resources into genuinely keeping the government in line.
So, I'm going to sit down and be quiet for a while until I find out how newspapers actually run.