From the SMH:
Entrepreneur Graeme Wood’s experiment with philanthropically funded journalism on the web has come to an abrupt end after he told the staff of his website, The Global Mail, that he was no longer going to fund the site.
I sympathise with the staff but this is the right decision. The Global Mail was misconceived from the outset. Poaching a gaggle of tired baby-boomer prattlers in a vainglorious attempt to save the media with navel gazing features is not the future of online journalism. There may be a market for chardonnay socialist readers online but they need a more dynamic offering than that, as Wood’s subsequent tie-up with the Guardian has proved.
Personally, I don’t think the future is terribly bright for old school journalists going online. Newspaper content operated as a vertical monopoly that protected the dills that wrote them from scrutiny. The internet is a horizontal marketplace and if you’re not an expert then you’re nothing.
