A new model for modest, middle-class journalism

There's a viable journalism business model. It's just not on Wall Street.

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News about the media business is, as usual, pretty wretched. In The Atlantic, Elaine Godfrey tells the story of the lingering death of The Hawk-Eye, a local paper in Burlington, Iowa that was thriving until it was bought up by Gannett (a national newspaper conglomerate) and mercilessly garroted. Meanwhile, The New York Times' Ben Smith killed the much-hyped launch of Ozy Media, a multimedia venture from former MSNBC host Carlos Watson, by exposing it as an apparent fraud scheme.

But it's not all bad. The sports media start-up Defector recently published an annual report showing solid business success. The magic strategy, apparently, is to create and cultivate a loyal subscriber base, sell a few ads here and there, and — stay with me here — don't deliberately destroy the business. It's a simple strategy, but it does require steering clear of Silicon Valley and Wall Street.

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Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.