LateUpdate.com - Is this the future of local news online?

I just found out about this Website, Late Update.com. Its an online news site for the Fresno community, edited by a young journalist with roots at FCC's Rampage, Fresno State's Collegian, and the Fresno Business Journal.

Maybe this is an example of how we'll get our local news instead of through a local newspaper.

Will Television News Be The Last Man Standing

It seems that newspapers in their traditional form are dropping like flies. The Seattle Post Intelligencer's printing of their final issue yesterday, March 17, is the most recent example. Their Website lives on and even captures the memories of 147 years of publishing a printed newspaper. Locally, someone closely effected by the recent layoffs at the Fresno Bee described the Bee as "imploding".

We knew newspapers were in a period of transition to a greater focus on online news presentation. But, the situation has gone from a seemingly orderly evolution to the online model to newspapers gasping for life, with their online presence being the last hope for survival.

For a while, it seemed that newspapers were leading the way in exploring the potential of the Web compared to local broadcast TV. I thought the TV stations had missed the boat with the newspapers, at least those with vision, providing video coverage of local news and other multimedia features online.

But who would have guessed that many newspapers would so quickly go from lucrative profit margins to bankruptcy. In the meantime, TV stations, also tightening their belts, are doing better at retaining an audience and providing a meaningful outlet for those who still have advertising dollars.

I'm not a fan of big media conglomerates, but I'm beginning to think that the laws and regulations need to be changed so that local TV, newspaper and radio news operations can be consolidated. I'd rather have one local news organization that distributes content across the mediums of radio, TV, the Web and print than limited to no coverage of local news.