Non-profit news sites have been popping up everywhere. The most recent of these was the launch of the Texas Tribune, which focuses on state politics in that state. The most prominent one is ProPublica, which has done a lot of great investigative reporting in its short time of existence. Other sites that have launched include the New Haven Independent, The St. Louis Beacon and the Voice of San Diego.
These sites, by and large, are fantastic. They simply add to the number of journalists covering specific areas and are able to do stories the big metros might not have time for. But I am a little worried about the uniformity of direction they have: virtually all of them have a local or hyper-local focus.
The amount of foreign news provided by American news organizations has been in a relatively constant long-term decline. Off the top of my head, I can only think of six print-based news organizations that still have extensive foreign coverage: the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, The Wall Street Journal, McClatchy and Tribune.
I think most media watchers would agree more foreign news coverage is needed. I think a solution to this could be a ProPublica for foreign news, funding journalists around the world and sharing their stories with established media outlets. I haven’t heard much talk about the non-profit approach tackling foreign news, which concerns me. But maybe an already-established, internationally-focused foundation (Gates? Ford?) could underwrite the site at the beginning. It would then rely on further funding from the foundation and from other donors to cover its operating costs, perhaps in addition to some advertising.
You brought up a really good point, Kevin. I usually read the NY Times and the Washington Post so I usually get my fair share of foreign news, but I never thought of foreign correspondence in other print mediums, especially the smaller newspapers. It’s sad to say, but I think that has to do with the crippling newspaper industry. Many newspapers like the LA Times had to downsize or shut down their international bureaus for budgetary reasons. I agree; I think international affairs is as important as domestic needs, and we really need to pay attention to the problems going outside our country as it certainly has an effect, financially, socially, or otherwise, on us.
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