Several people have asked for my thoughts on last week’s announcement that former Rocky Mountain News editor John Temple will be editor of Peer News’ local startup.
I can say, first of all, thanks to Ryan’s Hawaii Blog for his rush transcript of Thursday’s conference call in which Temple and Pierre Omidyar took questions from local reporters about the venture.
The general shape of the news this new venture will deliver, and how it will be shaped by the still secret business plan, have yet to be revealed.
But in context of other news, I was struck by one point.
Asked about business reporting, Temple responded (according to the transcript):
We will be covering business issues, but through a different prism. How public policy affects entrepreneurs, how decisions in government relate to the ability of businesses to thrive.
On the one hand, how different is this prism? Doesn’t this business-centric approach describe the approach of the business press, from the Wall Street Journal to PBN? Since “business” is their focus, how policies effect business takes center stage.
Frankly, I’m more concerned with how business–and this means corporate power–effects us as everyday people and as citizens.
Last week we also had the Supreme Court’s decision removing limits on direct corporate spending to influence elections. It’s a decision being cheered by business.
How does a start-up news venture deploy limited assets in covering business? Exposing corporate corruption? Tracing corporate political influence that tends to crowd out the influence of voters and real constituents? Oh, excuse me. The Supreme Court now says that corporations are people too.
I’m beating around the bush here, because we can’t yet tell what Peer News is going to offer, but I came away from the transcript with these nagging concerns. Will policy be covered from a business perspective, or will business be covered from a citizen’s perspective? Do those approaches necessarily conflict?
We’ll just wait and see, I suppose.
Postscript: Congratulations to Hawaii Blog for edging past iLind.net for the 3rd spot in the BlogRank Top 75 Hawaii Blogs list.
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I don’t think Pierre Omidyar’s assets are “limited.” Of all people, he has the ability to experiment and find the best business model. Or perhaps he has already done his research.
Of course, outsiders don’t know what the plan is.
I’m not sure what conclusions can be drawn from an introductory phone call. The most significant thing for me is that John Temple will be on the scene in Hawaii. We should all benefit from his activities here even if we don’t yet know the details of what he will do. Chances are he knows.
And here I thought you’d be on his payroll!
Congrats, Ian. Noticed that a lot of Advertiser blogs are on the list, too. Mine isn’t, of course. Boo-hoo…
I just don’t get it. Here’s a guy with BILLIONS of dollars and he decides to keep himself busy by launching a news site that will focus on business and “civic” issues?? Let’s see, we have two daily newspapers where most cities have one that employ probably close to 200 journalists combined, 5 or 6 tv stations, dozens of radio stations, dozens of bloggers…..AND we are apparently missing something. I think what we are missing is the real intent….
You’re missing something. Trust me.
Thanks for writing about Peer News and my appointment, Ian. And thanks to Larry for the kind words about what my presence in Hawaii might mean. I’m delighted to join the state’s journalistic community and hope I can add something to the mix.