We’ve all watched as newspapers and news organizations have gone out of business in the last year, facing a tough economy lacking both interested readers and willing advertisers. This short video featuring Steven Engelberg of Propublica.org is a good overview that explains the growing trend of non-profit news outlets. Seattle has a few, you could probably name them, and I’ve dealt with some of the news reporters from these non-profits. Most are generally professional and capable.

But I find that these reporters - or more specifically reporters from exclusively on-line only media outlets - tend to be less disciplined about their stories. They do not seem to be as bound by the traditions of journalistic protocols that have defined the modern newspaper reporter’s life since the post Watergate era began in the mid-1970s.

Perhaps that’s because they are not necessarily writing about the community in which they live? I generally enjoy working with reporters from community newspapers and small town dailies because they understand that relationships are worth developing over time. It leads to better reporting, better access to information and better information for the community.

Or perhaps it is because the on-line only reporters are pressured to do “investigative” pieces based on the premise that government is cheating the taxpayers or otherwise messing up?

Either way, there is a new breed of reporter evolving in our Web 2.0 world and we are all going to have to get used to it. What do you think?