New media vs. old media

Barron's has an article this week questioning the received wisdom about old media. In passing, it notes that local newspapers (and their journalists) were subsidized for decades by people trying to sell their car or hire a receptionist. The article concludes that companies like Disney and WPP are underpriced, thanks to the widespread but probably erroneous belief that their business models are broken (when they're just taking a cyclical hit). The Times reports that the former editor of Texas Monthly has joined the Texas Tribune, an online startup focused on Texas politics. A separate article announces another that covers celebrities and will be run out of NY by a former print editor. A financial beneficiary of the latter startup is a much-feared blogger in LA, the subject of a separate profile in the Times, whose monomaniacal pursuit of LA's entertainment cluster is ideal for the blog medium and its audience. One of the maxims of La Rochefoucauld says that focusing insistently on a single topic in conversation is a cardinal sin in polite society, but clearly the salon is not the web.