Sometimes I actually feel sorry for old media. Blogs are taking all the page views and don’t have the massive cost overhead of newspapers and magazines. AOL is gobbling up magazine and other media writers by the hundreds.
And today I see this article talking about Google News Spotlight, which focuses on that supposedly last bastion of old media – investigative journalism. The stuff that’s “too hard” for blogs to do. But in a world where old media can’t keep up with breaking news, presumably longer investigative articles can be their safe place:
The Spotlight section of Google News is updated periodically with news and in-depth pieces of lasting value. These stories, which are automatically selected by our computer algorithms, include investigative journalism, opinion pieces, special-interest articles, and other stories of enduring appeal.
And what’s a good example of a special-interest article with “enduring appeal?” The Onion, a satire website which is currently the top story on Spotlight. This article beats out everything else that old media investigative journalism can muster right now.
It’s just too bad Google News isn’t linking to the Daily Show yet.