Newsprint running downhill: Chris Anderson writes in his new book, FREE, that “Information wants to be free in the same way that life wants to spread and water wants to run downhill.” Reviewer Malcolm Gladwell is not so sure. (Illustration courtesy of The New Yorker)That's the really big question and nobody has an answer. Meantime, news businesses are shrinking and valuable information services are fading.

Here's a few things to read as you think about how communities will, or won't, develop healthy and sustainable news organizations.

Is free the future?

Malcolm Gladwell doubts it, in his review of the book, FREE by The Long Tail author Chris Anderson in the July 6 New Yorker magazine. Gladwell argues with Anderson's premise, borrowed from early digital thinker Stewart Brand, that "Information wants to be free."

This interesting analysis opens with the story of a news executive rejecting an offer from Amazon to license newspaper content for the new Kindle. Under the offer, the newspaper company would get 30 percent and Amazon would get 70 percent of subscription revenue, plus the right to distribute the material on any platform it chooses. Not such a great deal, concludes the newspaper editor, who faces paying the costs of gathering and writing the news.

Anderson suggests that Google gives away its search for free, and You Tube gives away video upload and viewing for free. Gladwell chews on a flaw in this argument, pointing out that despite tons of users, You Tube is losing money, and to lure advertisers in, had to buy quality content.

Find an Amazon audio interview with Chris Anderson here. He explains why his book will be sold in hard copy, but available free online.

Is charity journalism the future?

A July, 2009 study suggests yes, but only in the short term. USC Annenberg School of Communication's Center for Communication Leadership and Policy (CCLP) just took a look. The 12-page downloadable PDF, Philanthropic Foundations: Growing Funders of the News," by former McClatchy Washington Bureau editor David Westphal, finds evidence they will.

The Center for Investigative Journalism will soon open a 10-person bureau to produce state-related investigative news in California, thanks to more than $2 million in foundation grants. The Kaiser Family Foundation is opening a California health reporting network on health policy issues. NGOs like Amnesty International already have information gatherers who write more academic reports on human rights violations world-wide. They are considering hiring journalists to turn this information into compelling stories.

But philanthropy can be fickle, and after a bit often seeks out new initiatives to fund. Orville Schell, former dean of the UC Berkeley graduate school of journalism, thinks a hybrid that includes foundation money, membership drives like public radio, plus advertising, may be the wave of the future.

Also of interest:

> What pays for newspaper journalism? Not the cover price.

> Building a better journalism

> Google to newspapers: Hey, gives us your videos!