What is News 2.0?

Om Malik has an interesting take on what constitutes the term "News 2.0" (the latest phrase within the Internet buzzword parlance that started with "Web 2.0").

There are many high-traffic news sites out there, he contends, that don’t create any news at all — they only aggregate. This has been a successful model for many news aggregators such as Topix, Google News (which came out of beta yesterday after four years) and others. But we must remind ourselves that these sites are nothing without the "News 1.0" (as Malik phrases it) that provides the content.

This concept applies to a broader argument of the necessity and longevity of print newspapers in a Web 2.0 world. As much as some bloggers will take the anti-establishment, free-content attitude that continues to be chic throughout Internet culture, it must be recognized that the source of all their information, and the generously supplied daily flow of fodder for their ruminations, is the work of newspaper and magazine reporters. And you can’t have the newsroom without the newspaper.

Newspapers are facing unprecedented challenges, as shown by the ongoing woes of Knight Ridder and others. But their assets (original reporting, journalistic standards, established trust within their communities, etc.) are fueling the success of the medium that is in some cases slowly exacerbating their decline. An interesting paradox.

Some newspapers will always be around. But online is clearly where the growth is taking place, and established publishers need to find a way to compete with online distribution of both news and classifieds. Given the long-established business models and cultures of many publishers (and inertia), this might not happen without partnerships with online players, or some M&A activity (i.e., Classified Ventures). The latter is hard to execute in the face of falling margins. But we hope it does for the sake of quality news and its survival.