A comment on this kotaku article, which became long-winded enough to merit preservation:
The internet-as-a-newspaper has several major advantages - not just adblocking. :)
I live in Pittsburgh (a drinking town with a football problem) and if the local media isn't ejaculating Steelers or Penguins coverage all over the top front then it's Doom And Gloom about the airport or public transit. There's far too much sports coverage and the comics page hasn't been worth looking forward to since Calvin & Hobbes ended.
Enter the internet. I can get my news from sites and services that actually report on issues I'm interested in (I don't give a FLAMING SHIT about what Ben Rothenberger had for lunch - I'm more interested in Al Franken's fight for the Senate, and you're going to have to dig deep in a Pittsburgh paper to get any indication that there's a stated named Minnesota anywhere on the map), I can read comics I find amusing, articles on subjects I'm interested in written by writers whose prose is digestible... and most importantly, I can elect to NOT consume anything somebody else thinks I ought to be reading.
While there's been some praise of Gawker/Kotaku in this thread, I think the company is suffering from the same form of USA Today-itis - too many low-content gossip-blithering articles shot up for quotas, paychecks, ad revenue, trying to get the commenting base incited so the sales people have better figures to flash at potential advertisers. Not enough BBC or Guardian grade articles, by a long shot.... but the beeb and the guardian are more broad-ranging with more employees and far less targeted at highly specific demographics. They're also Old Media news services with an old media attitude and an old media attention span.
I like the Old Media attention span, and I hope they keep it - and that New Media (Gawker et al) eventually learn what this "attention span" thing is and learn to embrace it - which is possible, as this article indicates. Until that happens, Gawker continues to be a jumble of bubblegum sound bites with the occasional bit of thought-provoking prose sticking out... just like USA Today, only with comments. Just like Slashdot, only without comment moderation.
One day the news media will evolve to a point where we the reader can have what we want in the way that we want it. For those of us who need something to do in between adderall doses, the future is now. For those of us who want All Articles All The Time - those of us who'd love to declare the Death Of The Sound Bite... that time is still a ways out.
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