New net news
: Germany’s wonderful net-only newspaper, NetZeitung, under the leadership of the good Dr. Michael Maier, is about to spawn its next generation.
I’ve long followed and liked NetZeitung and I’ve had the privilege of meeting Dr. Maier, a journalist with amazing credentials and also a nice guy. Maier believes in the value of reporting and editing; his netpaper is not a product of interactivity (they played with a blog only for awhile; I think they could do more to capture the value of citizens’ media; see the post below).
Now he’s stealing a beat from GoogleNews (and Moreover and RSS) and adding feeds of headlines from other sources to every story. (I talked with Google long ago about trying to license their categories of headlines to do just that on my day-job sites; they never got around to it; their opportunity missed. Looking at two better alternatives now.)
Here’s Maier’s column announcing the changes (auf Deutsch) with my bad translation:
…The Netzeitung will soon appear in a whole new form: We’re integrating a news search so that next to Netzeitung’s classic articles, you’ll find articles of other media. After every article a link list will appear automatically.
Maier says they’ve identitied 200 quality sources — “unlike traditional search engins, Netzeitung will offer journalistic quality” — and now he asks their readers for help finding more small quality sources in specialized areas, including weblogs.
I’ll predict, Dr. Maier, that you’ll soon find that the greatest value you provide isn’t your own articles — though that has value — but the bringing together of the best and latest coverage of — and perspectives on — stories. And don’t skimp on the blogs!
