But they’ve got to survive with no subsidies. Not from taxpayers, at least. Government funding means government news, and nobody wants that.

But we don’t have to wait for more papers to go the way of the Rocky Mountain to see the effects. Thousands of smaller towns across the nation have been lacking any sort of real news service for years. Local blogs do a better job of filling the gap in these towns/cities, but it still requires that someone care enough about the municipality to put in the uncompensated effort. As for larger cities…they need newspapers for everything: from the gossip to the investigative stuff.

Yes, I have personal issues with the way the AJC has treated this site over the many months (use it and pretend like it doesn’t exist)…but unlike its presumed feelings towards me, I do NOT wish it ill. ATL needs a newspaper…and if they go down like so many others, I will be angry that they weren’t able to figure out a profitable model.

And I hate to revive a old, old idea…but perhaps it is finally time for a pay model for papers online. NOT for the big national papers (and maybe not at all for national news) – unless they did it all at once…because there’s too much free competition out there. What they need to charge for is the stuff that they have exclusively. That’s all the local news in a one paper market. You might not be willing to pay for opinion, or national news…because you can always get it somewhere else for free. But what about all that state of GA and local news? Where else are you gonna find that?

And if you check your local news page on AJC.com everyday and it disappears, would you pay for it? Maybe not everyone…but I bet a whole lotta folks would if the price was right.

There are some professions that everyone thinks they can do. Kind of like opening a restaurant. I like to cook and eat, I should open a restaurant. Or traffic engineering; I drive, so I must be an expert in traffic. Journalism is one of those professions, too.

I appreciate the fine grain focus of the local blogs. They frequently cover and break stories that a large organization with a broader audience can’t cover. However, local blogs often don’t have the resources, talents and expertise to cover and reveal many stories. These could be stories of vital interest to the public like the one presented in the Washington Post. Here at home the AJC is teetering, and while we all complain about the direction of the paper, we will all be losers if they continue to cutback reporters and coverage. (I don’t think I’ve ever seen the paper as thin as it was this morning.)

Very few things are free in this world, and good reporting should be paid for by readers. I don’t think advertisers should be the ones footing the total bill either since they could color the coverage. I’m hoping a new business model will emerge that continues to support the profession of journalism – a profession with a tradition of muckraking and informing that keeps our democracy functioning as well as possible.