New journalism attracts old journalists

The New York Times and the Guardian are prestigious titles whose websites are at the top of the list of world news services. And yet, they keep losing some of their best journalists who are attracted by new adventures on Internet that can also prove one day to be profitable.

Five years ago, Politico started with some of the best Washington correspondents from the Times and the Post. To day, Pierre Omidyar a very wealthy businessman is launching a new site devoted to in depth inquiries and he picked up Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian NSA scoop getter. Other sites like Buzzfeed and Yahoo keep hiring and often look for the best. In France, Mediapart could play the same role thanks to its growing audience.

In the November 18 issue of the Guardian Emily Bell observes that it could mean a sharp division between ailing popular and regional newspapers and a prosperous high level brand of journalism providing news to a world elite, ready to pay. Such is an unforeseen result of the Internet revolution.