For most of us, we remember a time when speaking about “the press” meant a handful of broadcast networks and a slightly bigger handful of nationally read papers and news magazines. Not less than twenty years ago, one could plausibly talk about a media establishment.

No more. We live in digital world of 24 hour news services—not just from established big budget media outlets, but derived from any Tom, Dick or Jane that has internet access and ability to compose a complete sentence. Actually, I take that back—Twitter has even done away with that requirement!

Nielson currently estimates that the amount of folks in the US alone with personal access to online content (via computers, mobile phones, or otherwise) is over 230 Million—that number being up almost 30% from last year alone. And of that group, every year US adults are proving to become increasingly active online. As the chart below shows, they are steadily migrating into more interactive territory, contributing, responding and creating more than the year before:

It is a fascinating, albeit not surprising trend. Internet = Democracy and people are learning that their individual voice is much more powerful than they ever thought possible. It’s mighty stuff—although consumers trust real friends the most, surveys show virtual strangers rank a close second (bloggers, consumer-written reviews, blog post responses, social media posts, etc.).

This is, of course, not great news for traditional media. With the plethora of voices and breaking news sources, dedicated viewership to any one site or publication in on the decline: people enjoy the range of options and prefer to lend their attention to multiple news sources (and very often to non-profit outlets) rather than just one or two mainstream voices. Exacerbated by a shitty economy, what is a venerable news source like the New York Times supposed to do??

Alternative publishing models placing less emphasis on large in-house salaried staff and more on citizen reporting is the talk of the town. Why not harness the groundswell of readers who like to write? Without belaboring this point any further, here are just two examples of mainstream media toying with this idea:

>  CNN i-Report

> “The Local” by NYTimes