New World from the Shell of the Old: Imagining a model to preserve journalism

Damn. The Star Tribune is in bankruptcy, the Christian Science Monitor ended its print versions, and online media struggles to break even through ad revenue (an understatement), or scraps with social service organizations for non-profit funding.

It's really just time for me to announce my plan to preserve journalism to my audience of dozens.

Number One: Newspapers are a format.
They're failing because another format, the internet, makes them redundant or difficult for people to justify as a separate purchase. That's o.k. They waste trees and pollute anyway.

Number Two: Journalism isn't about newspapers.
The idea behind journalism, although mixed with years of gossip and TV junk, is that it holds authorities accountable to people. That's the only purpose to justify shitty puff pieces about American Idol (looking at you: every fucking paper in the world!). I don't think all journalism needs to be high-minded, but without that enterprise reporting the people lose an important voice.
If journalism has fallen in the public esteem in recent years, I'd attribute it to the fact that the powerful media interests were shown to be too often in the pockets of the wealthy or powerful.
Somewhere I read that the American press differed from any other in it's origins because it took this responsibility to inform the public to heart. Newspapers here were named things like The Spokesman and The People's Defender and The Liberator. Let's get back to those roots and away from names like the Tribune Press Herald Daily that speak of corporate consolidation.

Number Three: Online isn't the problem
Media online competes with blogs, commercials, and official areas of information. Even good media, for instance Minnpost here or the Voice of San Diego, have trouble thriving in this information deluge. Not to mention that they compete for hard-fought and temporary non-profit dollars. They certainly can't hope to compete with porn or blogs that update a million times a day for commercial dollars brought in by ads. It doesn't matter. The internet could serve as a teaser for what I'm imagining.

Number Four: Journalism's I-Pod
People like newspapers and magazines. They like the portability and the self-enclosed format.
There are already the stirrings of this idea in Amazon.com's Kindle. The Kindle is, however, still bulky compared to a magazine.
The future, and I can't believe it's that far, will be flexible e-paper that automatically downloads a complete local package every day -- like a daily magazine. Maybe it would have to start by downloading from a dock every morning and afternoon (Yes! Afternoon and evening papers again!). Take it on the bus, take it to the cafe. I imagine the technology would develop. The readable format could be relatively cheap, while the dock was the expensive component. Who knows, but the I-Pod has shown that platforms can be important. Rather than going to high-functioning bulk, why not go towards low-functioning accessibility, meaning no video or trying to be the internet?
Look at this or this and tell me you're not excited.

Number Five: Money is Filth
True, but as I said before, reporters need to be employed full-time in order to serve our public good and get into all the nefarious schemes our authorities have their fingers in. The business model could be based on newspapers' local monopolies, or it could employ freelancers in local areas and just consolidate the content. We need editors though, and we need reporters. I would like a decentralized and fiercely independent co-op model to take journalism away from the Masters programs and unhealthy relationships with the powerful; Why not give it a shot? This imagined model could use ads in its format and give the e-paper away for free, or it could be based on subscription or a hybrid model.

That's it: Maybe there's not much reality to this imagined scheme. I am writing this on an empty stomach before a long workday, but it seems like journalism needs some new developments to avoid worrying itself to the grave so I'm happy to throw something into the interweb and see if it sticks.
This would appeal to me, and I read newspapers. You?