Omidyar to the Rescue of Professional News?
This is an incredible development for me, given what's happening at BusinessWeek. And I do mean hard to believe. But in an encouraging and intriguing way.
As the traditional media world is being hacked to tiny pieces by the Internet, Pierre Omidyar, that guy who harnessed the Web so powerfully, says he's founding a for-profit news service in Hawaii that will be staffed with, gulp, professional reporters.
Omidyar's pr person Sarah Steven says that Omidyar's motivation is simple: He's seen the decline of the industry and believes that a strong democracy needs a strong media to help keep citizens informed and involved.
The facts: Omidyar will be directly involved, not just an investor. The service is expected to launch late in the first quarter of 2010 or in the beginning of the second. It will be online only. The venture is based in Hawaii because that's where Omidyar has lived for nearly 3 years. Steven says there aren't any plans to expand right now.
The fascination: For one thing, this is someone who gets the Web and who has done a lot with citizen journalism. He backed Backfence and Bayosphere, two high profile early pioneers in citizen journalism that both failed. Clearly he hasn't given up on that, given how he talks about it in his blog post. But he also believes that you can't just leave the future of media up to the grassroots forces or the blog ventures that are shaping news online right now. Clearly he feels like journalism needs more help.
Just as important, he's convinced there's a business model for news. Goodness knows, for that reason alone, his venture is one to watch.
