Niles argues that journalists must adopt a kind of “scientific method” for reporting news that includes not only testing and verification to make certain journalists have their facts straight, but peer review as well. Peer review, in which the editors of say, the esteemed journal Nature put a scientist’s research through the ringer before they’ll publish it, is sadly missing in journalism today.

At one point in the past, it wasn’t necessary. Respected news sources like the major TV networks were taken at face value, as were newspapers like the Washington Post or Los Angeles Times. However, we live in an age in which the news media is slave first to ratings and sales and then to reporting the news. Fox News castigates the “mainstream” media for telling a slanted story, hoping to draw viewers who distrust what they perceive as news sources that have a political agenda that doesn’t mesh with their own. AM talk radio stations serve as the more conservative counter to public radio broadcasts, which is seen as a left-wing vehicle. Those of us left wanting “the facts” are forced to turn to the BBC, which we hope doesn’t have a stake in American politics or are forced to scratch our heads and wonder whose news is the real news, and whose is distorted and slanted. Throw in “iReports,” social media and amateur journalism, and who knows where the truth lies.

Niles is right when he calls for the news media to serve as an arbiter as what’s true and what’s bunk. Some websites fill this role today: politifact.com, for example, which is run by the St. Petersburg Times. However, those websites can be dismissed as slanted toward one side or another, or at least accused of such, and often an accusation is as good as committing the crime.

New York's General Electric building

So what can be done? A new model that is emerging in the media is the non-profit news source. This model solves two problems: first, it helps to fund what the free market won’t, thanks to Craigslist and other services that have zapped newspaper advertising revenues. Secondly, it can, if done properly, become an impartial news source. To achieve this, a non-profit news source should a) not accept any donations over a certain level (maybe $5,000) and, b) publish an on-going list of its donors so that readers can see who funds the news source and who presumably might be biasing it with their dollars.

By limiting donations and ensuring transparency, these news sources can reduce the impact of big corporations, PACS and lobbyists, which all play a huge role in decision-making in this country today. It puts the onus of funding the news source on “we the people”, and not on GE (parent company of NBC), NewsCorp (Fox), Disney (ABC), Gannett, McClatchy, Tribune or anyone else. Maybe we can’t trust the corporations—but if we can’t trust ourselves to fund truly “fair and balanced” news sources with millions of small donations from the people themselves, then who can we trust?

This is remarkable, considering that when Google began offering news as one of its many services about ten years ago, it made great hoopla over the fact that no actual humans were involved in the assembling of the news on google.com. The company that invented the world’s leading Internet search algorithm would rely on news aggregation algorithms to determine what was newsworthy.

But now, Google will partner with editors from leading news providers such as the New York Times, LA Times and Reuters to select “Editor’s Picks” that will appear in Google news.

This turnabout is especially important for several reasons. Occasionally, Google (and Yahoo, and others) will grab onto off-the-wall stories from Russian tabloids detailing a Siberian farmer’s encounter with space aliens, or something equally bizarre that should have never made it past the computer news selector. Slightly less annoying is the search engines picking up a story in a foreign English-language newspaper (such as Xinhua) that was probably told just as well (and without government censorship) in the Washington Post.

Lastly, the whole notion of “the more news, the better” that’s taken over the media ever since the advent of 24-hour cable news and the global spread of the Internet has not been healthy for us humans. Rather than news being carefully filtered by knowledgeable editors, it’s simply tossed out to the masses like chum over the side of a fishing boat.

Fox News says “We report, you decide,” but sometimes we need news editors to decide what’s news and what’s not, or what’s opinion and what’s fact. In these days of mass hysterias, Wall Street panics, left vs. right and a general overload of people telling us what to do and how to think, we could use a little less news. Or barring that, we could use more credible news.

So, Kudos to Google—and here’s to their experiment in having actual people write the news.

While newspapers long excelled in delivering local news, the Internet is less fertile ground—for now. While online national and international news sites such as CNN.com and Yahoo! news, and newsy, political blogs like Huffington Post and the Drudge Report are wildly popular, the local news scene has been hit-and-miss, depending on whether or not local media established a strong online presence. Social media have filled in the gaps where local media have fallen short, helping users to stay connected with happenings online while sharing information and interacting in real time—something that print newspapers can’t do.

The decision by major media companies like AOL and Gannett to go local from the top down—delivered by a national company to the local market—brings up several questions that remain unanswered. First, what about credibility? Consumers can smell an outsider a mile away. If the hyper-local media offerings put forth by these companies don’t “sound” local, with real local knowledge, then consumers will tune them out.

For example, many of the traffic and weather reports given during drive-time on AM news talk stations aren’t originating in a “traffic center” in the local studio. They’re being phoned in on a high-quality digital telephone line from a desk at a location that can be hundreds or thousands of miles away. And sometimes it shows—the announcer will mispronounce a town or street name that any local would know. Hiring local writers and reporters will be key to the credibility of these efforts.

Second, local newspapers aren’t ignorant of the fact that local news sells. In an age when the Internet is a far more efficient source for national and international news, offering up-to-the-minute breaking news and a wide variety of perspectives, the local newspaper—and its online counterpart—remain the best place for Little League news, local human interest stories, and other news that the national companies don’t cover well for obvious reasons. They’re sure to mount a strong challenge, paralleling the fight between mom-and-pop retail stores and WalMart in many communities around the country. What’s uncertain is whether the local news media can be more successful than the mom and pop stores have been.

The battle for hyper-local news dominance is worth watching because it’s part of the much broader debate and battle for the future of the publishing industry. Some major players have decided that this is where at least part of their future is at. We’ll see.

For an assignment in my news writing class in college, we were asked to attend a local “happening” and write a basic news story on it. Simple enough…but I couldn’t leave it at that. Somehow I managed to convince the professor to let me write a press release instead of a hard news story. Ever since, I’ve had a soft spot in my heart for the lowly press release. Spurned by big newsrooms, welcomed by small weeklies with two-person staffs, the press release can be an effective tool for getting your message out.

A press release is not an advertisement or a way to drive people to your website. It is, however, a way to inform the media about the aspects of your product, service or company that may be newsworthy. News editor consider something to be newsworthy if it’s new, timely, controversial, unique, humorous, interesting or different.

First off, know this: news editors could care less about helping you promote your product or service. That’s left to the folks in the advertising sales department, and the two groups are like oil and water. From an editor’s perspective, advertising sales is a necessary evil. Of course, without paid ads, there would be no magazine or newspaper.

What editors do care about is news. That’s why your press release can’t focus on business as usual. Put yourself in the editor’s shoes—what can you share with them that their readers want to know? What is new at your company? What interesting stories can you tell? Do you have an employee who is an Iraq war vet? What does your business do that no one else does? What has your business helped a client do well? What is time sensitive that needs to get published now?

News editors are literally bombarded with press releases from all over the country, and even the world. What separates your message from the rest of the pack? Even if your release is about the latest trend in communication devices, an offering of affordable health insurance, or a personal injury lawyer who can get you money for your injury, you still have to have a “hook.” Ninety-nine percent of press release content is focused on what the writer wants to say and not focused on what the customer—the news editor—wants to read. News people call PR folks “flaks,” a derogatory term that refers to the annoying anti-aircraft fire that World War II bombers had to fly through on the way to the target. Is your story “flak” material, or news?

Every company should keep a supply of story ideas on hand that will make for great press releases (and great newspaper articles) when business is slow or when there’s a slow news day. If you build a reputation as a great source of legitimate news stories, you’ll have editors and reporters calling you for ideas. Remember, small newspapers and magazines are always desperate for content and short on people to generate it. As a result, sometimes they will often publish your entire press release verbatim!

Now that you know what to put in a press release, we’ll focus on how to structure and write in it part II.