Technology is making good journalism irrelevant only to those who have no attention span or don't read.
The internet crushed distribution, but nowhere has it eliminated the demand for great writing. If anything, that need is greater now than ever.
The internet crushed distribution, but nowhere has it eliminated the demand for great writing. If anything, that need is greater now than ever.
Page view driven journalism is taking us down a dark path. I would not be surprised if George Takei and Ashton Kutcher are the premier sources of online information for most people in 5 years. Good writing is not required for a large number of page views.
Most of my friends and family can't distinguish between a real website/blog and an SEO, ad-driven site with computer generated text.
Unfortunately, re: your first point, that's a large audience, one which advertisers are happy to target. And I'm not sure good journalism was ever relevant to those with short attention spans or who don't read. However those folks have always been relevant to advertisers.
Advertisers are not going to save good journalism. Maybe good writers must do it, and maybe only for the love of writing.
Cost of distribution: zilch.