Glenn Greenwald’s The Intercept and Matt Taibbi’s as-yet-unnamed publication (I’m hoping he calls it “Perseus”) at First Look Media. Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight.com.
I suspect these are the vanguard of the next era in news media. Blogs and bloggers were reactionary, responding to mainstream publications’ movements and coverage. But with Greenwald and Silver so far, I’m seeing a vitality in reporting that hasn’t existed in decades, if ever. (To be clear: other outlets are doing similar work as well. I just picked these as my examples, as they were the inspiration for my thinking.)
I also suspect that news organizations as part of conglomerate corporations are going to struggle to keep up with these new publications. They were better off with the bloggers. At least bloggers could be dismissed as wearing their pajamas all day. These people wear a suit and tie – or a pantsuit – to work. And they are actually working. Original research, analysis, and reporting promise to be the order of the day. I can’t wait to see where this all leads.