Four Reasons to be Hopeful for News

[Commentary] There are four reasons to be optimistic about the future of news media: Post-modernist cynicism, The Long Tail, WordPress, and Patch.com

1. Post-modernist cynicism creates a consumer attitude that there is no real truth in any one source. Truth - if it can be known - is individual and personal, rather than delivered. Today even the least media savvy know that you can't trust what you see on TV and that smart people look for multiple sources.
2. The Long Tail is Chris Anderson's theory referring to the edges of a Bell curve. That our culture and economy is increasingly shifting away from a focus on a relatively small number of mainstream products at the head of the demand curve and toward a huge number of niches in the tail.
3. WordPress is a magnificent free tool with which you can publish your reporting in a professional-looking manner from Day One.
4. Patch.com is not a cause for optimism because they are hiring but because they are spending a lot of money on convincing people that hyperlocal news, with just one local editor, is a credible source.

[Fourcher is co-founder and manager of some of Chicago's online news sites including Early and Often, Center Square Journal and Roscoe View Journal]