[tatsuke95]

Technology is making good journalism irrelevant only to those who have no attention span or don't read.

The internet crushed distribution, but nowhere has it eliminated the demand for great writing. If anything, that need is greater now than ever.

[Tsagadai]

I can't agree with you more than I do. Good writing and journalism is more important than ever but it is completely missing. Blogs are mostly crap, successful online news generally consists of fluff pieces and most actual news is repeated and retold to the point of being a muffled meme.

Page view driven journalism is taking us down a dark path. I would not be surprised if George Takei and Ashton Kutcher are the premier sources of online information for most people in 5 years. Good writing is not required for a large number of page views.

[tatsuke95]

>"Blogs are mostly crap"

Most of my friends and family can't distinguish between a real website/blog and an SEO, ad-driven site with computer generated text.

[Apocryphon]

Unfortunately, the internet is also crushing attention spans.

[thespin]

True, especially the part about the need for great writing.

Unfortunately, re: your first point, that's a large audience, one which advertisers are happy to target. And I'm not sure good journalism was ever relevant to those with short attention spans or who don't read. However those folks have always been relevant to advertisers.

Advertisers are not going to save good journalism. Maybe good writers must do it, and maybe only for the love of writing.

Cost of distribution: zilch.