What will happen to investigative news?

[David Oates]

I was speaking today at the Poway, Calif., Chamber of Commerce's Lunch and Learn event today about how small business owners and entrepreneurs can do PR on their own, particularly in social media. During that talk I made a brief mention how companies needed to be their own broadcasters, in part because traditional media outlets were shrinking substantially if not dying out altogether.

This prompted one of the best conversations I've had on the subject by one of the audience members who was concerned that online media outlets would not be able to pay for good investigative journalists to cover any political, economic or social issue in great detail. His argument is that the "new media" won't generate enough income to support it, and instead become repositories for press announcements and spin.

The person's point is very well taken. However, I believe the likelihood of this is small, and any gap in investigative reporting will be short lived. As online and social media-generated news matures, I predict that we'll see a strong emphasis on investigative as well as breaking news coverage. I would submit Politico is already there for their niche market. And as more and more people shy away completely from the morning paper and evening network newscast, more money will be made in online news than anywhere else. As that evolves, so too will online investigative reporting.

Keep this in mind - journalism is not only alive, but thriving. I've written before how such content is actually growing in popularity. Moreover, online and social outlets are saving the industry, and there will come a time where money will be made in this area -- funds that will then go toward quality, in-depth reporting.

That's my take. What's yours?