Crossposted from my personal blog, which exists in a parallel universe.
Today while wandering the streets of San Francisco, I was approached by a clipboard-wielding activist interested in getting money from me to support local journalism. This usually fails, even with issues I agree with- I tend to be broke, and the organizations that do this kind of thing are often new to the scene and not the kind of institutions I would necessarily trust. But The Bay Citizen came across as a good idea and had legitimate backing, so I donated enough to become a member (free pen and T-shirt? Wahoo!).
Why them and not say, saving the whales? It's not that I think the whales are unworthy, it's that I think one of the most fundamental market failures is the market for information, especially in the United States. Polls of average Americans indicate that the public tends to be ignorant (or in the case of say, the War in Iraq, mislead) of current affairs, have a sketchy knowledge of history (a quarter don't know who the US declared independence from), and have many fears about crime, germs, and other topics that are really more blown out of proportion for media ratings than based in fact-- ask someone if the crime rate is generally trending up or down in the last decade. I'll wait.
A more equitable and better-funded educational system would be an answer to some of this, but also independent, non-profit news has a role. People will lambast the big three of CNN, MSNBC, and Fox for a variety of misdemeanors, from stretching the truth to filling up their schedules with inane topics, but is it really going to change them? They are part of massive multinational corporations and their purpose is to make consistent money. Honest, investigative journalism is most likely not going to come from such sources- it's either going to be bankrolled by wealthy patrons (see the New York Times), or run on a non-profit model where the goal is not appeasing shareholders but pleasing readers with high-quality content.
So I hope the Bay Citizen succeeds. It has its own faults (I wish their corporate sponsors were not so heavily tilted towards banks, for instance), but the non-profit, non-partisan model is solid, and they do assert fierce editorial independence. And with enough eager people wanting online news of good quality, local or national- they just might find a paying (alright, donating) audience.