Here’s an interesting piece from the New York Times that the list the number of Silicon Valley/Tech company leaders are backing newspapers or other forms of journalism is growing. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post; Pierre M. Omidyar, who founded eBay, is investing $250 million into a journalism venture with The Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald. The article lists several other big names and their investments.
David Carr writes:
It would also be a mistake to believe that the only thing digitally enriched players bring is money. The investment of intellectual capital will be just as important. If ever an industry was in need of innovation ? of big ideas from uncommon thinkers ? it is the news business.
Newspapers are dead. Long live newspapers. It will be interesting how this shakes out. As the industry declines it’s good to see an infusion of new capital. Of course the big question for us all is how the comics will fit in to their plans.