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> From Rex Ballard:
> How many people will want to read about disasters and crime?

Right on.  The great thing about stories of national importance
is that you can do the work once and then sell it to millions
of people.  Even at a fraction of a cent each, that pays for
the journalism and makes a profit.  It's hard to find stories
of genuine relevance to millions of people, but print media
have evolved ways of bundling news and mass-market ads in
ways that sell well enough.

Action items are harder because opportunities tend to be
local, evanescent, or of interest only to narrow audiences.
Even the WSJ wouldn't work as a weekly, if daily news were
available from competitors.  The business audience is
large enough, wealthy enough, and perhaps desperate enough
to pay for respectable daily journalism.  Other niche markets
will be less lucrative.  Will you ignore them?  Or will you
serve them, but with compromised quality?


> The principles such as gathering information and verifying it's accuracy,
> following up on information received and investigation are still primary
> tenets of electronic publishing.

Are they?  Or can some of these be compromised to fit small,
real-time markets with limited discretionary funds?  My customers
pay me to gather information, decide what is important, and
condense it into to a concise and entertaining publication.
I don't verify, follow up, or investigate.  I may not be a
paragon of journalism, but I serve my customers well and I make
a living at it.  Electronic publishing may turn out to be
very different from traditional publishing.

					-- Ken Laws
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From jvncnet!marketplace.com!owner-online-news Tue May 10 09:41:46 1994
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