Thank you for your thoughts, Phillip. I agree that digital news outlets are and will continue to fill the void — in reporting and in employment — created by the downsizing of the newspaper industry. Already, an organization like the Local Independent Online News (LION) Publishers has brought together approximately 200 publishers from communities around the US (and a few internationals) for support. Many of the publications you mentioned are paying members (full disclosure: I’m a founding board member, though I no longer serve on the board). http://www.lionpublishers.com/

While I’ve no doubt in my mind that there will still be demand for quality news, and that with demand there will be business opportunities, the question remains about how fast digital natives can rise to the challenge and what role platforms will play. Many digital news outlets are doing the investigative and enterprise reporting Levasseur mentions, but the rewards flow to those who can do fast, cheap news. So long as this remains the case, there’s going to be a period of diminished accountability — something society really can’t afford at this time.

Moreover, the playing field itself is changing. More often today, the platforms are working directly with, and favoring, “established” news brands — those same newspapers that have been slashing away at their newsroom for years and show no sign of stopping. There once was a level playing field for distributing information, which is what made early news startups somewhat successful in building audiences (and also gave rise to so much “fake news”). But that level playing field is once again off balance, and the cost of entry for a would-be digital news operation is rising — and none of that is good for closing the gap between that inevitable day when legacy models go extinct and when sustainable models emerge.