Now in that light consider the above pieces of journalism: passable for material which might be featured in any national broadsheet, it's free, and it is more accessible than any of the traditional newspapers, meaning that people who don't currently read investigative reports in high-end print or online subscription journals are perfectly happy to assume the habit. In other words, the whole package above is just more convenient for readers who are trying to get a sense of what is going on in the world.

So what will news services of the future look like? Perhaps the Korean phenomenon Oh My News has the answer. Part news site, part blog, it is the quintessential epitome of hybridised new media: written by citizen journalists, most of whom are college students but a good number of whom are professionals, Oh My News has been the first to break a flurry of major international stories, most recently the Paris riots. The site is manned by a small team of editors, but otherwise costs are kept to an absolute minimum: no expensive deployment of editors, no turnover and hiring costs - and faster transmission of news. Reynolds hopes one day that his pioneering activities will one day translate into hard cash, and by all accounts, this is not too far off. The news industry is changing as fast as it can be reported, and those who are at the forefront of it now stand to make a fortune.