Murdoch's gamble

He paid $500 million to learn "a social network is not a news delivery system." Actually, it delivers local or personal news.

When the national corporations began consolidating and cost-cutting, they showed their interest in local news by the nature of their cuts. Local "news" countered by showing its strength in gutting corporate media, first through local ads (Craig's List), then through local news (gossip) (Facebook). Local blogs round out the picture, which is still developing.

Nationalizing the news business was an idiotic model for which many have paid sorely.