Is L.A. News Black and White and Dead All Over?

The Path to Reinventing News in Southern California Is Littered with the Bodies of Good Ideas

The idea had success written all over it.

In 2011, news organizations throughout Southern California were shedding reporters and cutting coverage in the face of faltering finances. Sensing an opportunity to fill that vacuum, a well-known venture capitalist assembled a team to build a nonprofit web-based newsroom. The staff of the new entity would be schooled in the use of “data-mining” and other new techniques, and would pursue in-depth investigations and focus on government accountability. The operation would avoid the pressures of Wall Street expectations by soliciting support from wealthy Los …