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Comment by aditya | Hacker News Reader

What he's talking about is not news, but analysis. The Economist _really_ shines here as a model.

News isn't dead, only our consumption patterns have changed and it is definitely still more mainstream than being limited to news junkies, I don't know why everyone keeps saying that. Like, ask anyone if they watch the news, and the answer is no, but we're all on Hacker News or digg or insert_community_of_choice here and consuming "news" in other ways.

I think that twitter will probably be the platform that the next generation "news" app is built on. What it will do, and who it will appeal to are open questions...

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Two stand-out features of The Economist I'd like to see emulated more:

1. No separation of op-ed from news reporting. Just-the-facts-Ma'am reporting isn't objective, it just plays coy games with selective quotes and straw-men. It's dishonest and, worse, it's wordy.

2. No signatures on articles, whether written by one person or the entire staff. The text is boldly honest, without worrying the author might never work again for saying the wrong thing. The paper itself holds the opinions, which lean different directions in different decades. This is okay.

Most blogs and have the first item down pat. But the second is rare, despite the easy collaborative editing that modern blogware offers, and the benefit of pseudo-anonymity for amateurs who can't keep a perpetually diplomatic tongue. A platform that nudges its community in this direction might be all that's needed.

(Just another company I'm too lazy to start.)

I was going to say "The Economist" as well. They do some breaking news on their web site, but not much, and I wouldn't really go there for that. By the time I actually get the print edition, it's usually a bit stale in terms of the absolute latest, but the analysis and commentary is usually interesting to read.

There's also newspapers that isn't as focused on analysis as The Economist, which release on a weekly basis. Some newspapers even have international or weekly editions like The Guardian[1]. It does seem like this was a lot more common before the breakthrough of the Internet.

Also I think there's an issue with the format. I personally enjoy magazines like The Economist more in print, while it's the other way around with daily newspapers.

[1] http://www.guardianweekly.co.uk/

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