Providing Fresh Value by Reporting on Reporting
Fred Wilson is right. There’s lots of good information on blogs. Sometimes it is better than traditional media, sometimes not. The bottom line is that to get the best perspective on news and events, one needs to take advantage of a blend of old and new media.
Scott Karp is right. His concept of “link journalism” has a lot of merit in today’s environment. There’s no reason not to extend coverage by taking advantage of what other people are already creating.
Jeff Jarvis is right as well. He preaches the need to avoid commoditized news coverage and instead provide something that nobody else is creating. By serving up new and useful information, rather than the 432nd version of the same coverage, old and new media alike can find a winning formula.
The problem is that these three smart people all have slightly different visions, even though they are somewhat complementary as well. So how do we make sense of it and take advantage of what they are seeing?
Simple. Blend the concepts.
It would be great to create a service that digests information from a variety of different sources, old and new, in order to deliver information consumers a product that isn’t commoditized, incorporates the best existing coverage, and offers new perspectives that might otherwise have been overlooked by the reader.
It will take a combination of solid technology and excellent human editing in order to create something that truly delivers real value. Ultimately it is more than simple links, but rather "reporting on reporting."
Will it be traditional media who embraces this first? Or will it be a new media entity? Time will tell.