Wired has a couple interesting pieces about the future of journalism. Glenn Fleishman touches on the possibility of expensive forms of journalism like investigative reporting disappearing if newspapers fail. He also gets into some of the new business models that many others, including me, have written about. Worth the read.

The other piece by Douglas Wolk gets into news and information being extremely localized and delivered via mobile device. It is an interesting idea but he lost me with his example of how it would work. He paints the picture of somebody in a building using an app to find out about the history of the building.

Local information, yes. But not news. Local news is what is happening in City Hall, the court house, in the neighborhood. I'm not sure people will pay for an app that let's them know what is happening where they are standing. Most people living in that neighborhood or working in that building will want more substance like what is provided by a newspaper. Maybe some people will use an app like that to get there news. That could well be part of the mix that makes up the future delivery system of a newspaper.

His example works well for more feature like items such as movie listings and reviews to nearby restaurants. But not for the local news that is the hallmark of newspaper journalism.