The News Underground

The media landscape is changing, and it’s changing quickly.

Old media stalwart The New York Times reports that, in the past several years, a new brand of Web-based news coverage has emerged in a handful of cities across the U.S. According to the Times, sites like VoiceofSanDiego.org, MinnPost in the Twin Cities, and The New Haven Independent, offer “serious, original reporting by professional journalists…and hard-digging investigative reporting,” which “stand[s] out in an Internet landscape long dominated by commentary, gossip, vitriol and citizen journalism posted by unpaid amateurs.” Over the last two years, VoiceofSanDiego has broken several stories that led to investigations, convictions, and forced The San Diego Union-Tribune and others to play catch-up.

The organizational model varies from site to site: while VoiceofSanDiego mimics a traditional newsroom, with twelve full-time reporters making up to $70,000 per year, The New Haven Independent operates like a “guerilla team,” holding its meetings in a coffee shop. These sites all cover strictly local news, though, and borrow from the public broadcasting model, supported by foundations, donors, and reader contributions.

According to the Times, the people who run sites see themselves as just “one future among many” for journalism. Andrew Donahue, one of the executive editors at VoiceofSanDiego says, “We can’t be the main news source for the city, not for the foreseeable future. We only have 11 people.”

(Photo by Sharilyn Neidhardt)