Interesting Twist on What Makes the Internet

Lee Smith's essay in this week's Chronicle -- The Wealthiest Colleges Should Acquire "The New York Times" -- has several pithy and useful insights into journalism today. The gist is Smith believes the elite colleges should take a small percentage of their endowments and create a private for-profit of the NYT to keep the Grey Lady afloat in its current form.

This is a lot of the usual "who will pay for the journalism we need" screed, but at least he admits that what could be worse for the Times -- that people accuse it of being influenced by East Coast Liberal bias? Like they don't now? Good point, Lee Smith. His plan is not to make it a non-profit, but relieve the pressure of stockholders for short term profit, or rates of profit not consistent with "good journalism."

Enough -- here's the key quote:

". . . the Internet is not a source of information; it is a means of distributing information in bewildering bulk -- true, false, significant, trivial, timely, old, brilliant, maniacle -- from an endless array of sources. Some of it is wonderfully rich in detail, reliable, and level-headed; some of it is fantastical and malicious."

That has to be one of the best definitions of the InfoWeb 2.0 I have seen. He continues to point out that most of the "reliable information" on the net comes from reporters paid for by traditional media sources. True, and the crux of the monetizing eyeballs problem of InfoWeb 2.0.

Smith's column in whole is well worth a tumble. I'd like to give you a link, but of course, it is a subscription item (ironic, no?). Those that have a Chron subscription can jump here.