Is it? I don’t think so. General news, even that of the hyperlocal variety, isn’t something you can get people to pay for. The New York Times tried and failed at it with their web site. I think there’s good reason for this. People don’t want to pay for news, no matter how “zero day” it is. And the reason? News will get to them–some way or some how, it will get to them without payment. And people won’t pay for news.
Obviously in certain verticals, this isn’t the case. And delivered in certain substrates, such as a printed magazine (which takes months to copyedit and layout and weeks to print and distribute), people may pay a subscription fee. But generally speaking, paying for news is just so 1987.
So how do news media make it up? Content, content, content. Newspaper publishers, listen up. The way to attract revenue is to build social communities. Facebook is demonstrating this lesson, capturing the hearts and minds of news consumers that the newspaper will never, ever have a legitimate shot at unless they learn this lesson too.
