I posted the following this evening on my NewsNosh blog. I think it's relevant here as well:

The journalism world is positively atwitter today with the news that two well-known reporters have given up their positions at The Washington Post for the brave, new world of an online startup.

Here's some of the reporting.  The New York Times told it this way:

The Washington Post, which has long prided itself on the depth and breadth of its coverage of national politics, lost two of its top political reporters yesterday to a fledgling multiplatform news organization, albeit one with deep pockets.

John Harris, The Post's political editor, and Jim VandeHei, a national political reporter, said yesterday that they were leaving The Post to join Allbritton Communications to create an Internet-focused news organization, as yet unnamed, that will include a politics-only Web site. It will be affiliated with the company's new newspaper in Washington, The Capitol Leader, which is to start print publication in January.

The American Journalism Review had this to say:

It may not be a sign of the apocalypse, but it has the feel of a truly significant benchmark.

The defection of Washington Post Political Editor John Harris and ace political reporter Jim VandeHei to an online start-up is not just a crushing loss for the Post. It's a dramatic manifestation of the ongoing shift from old media to new.

You get the idea.  Implicit in all this is the head scratcher: "Why would any political reporter leave The Washington Post, perhaps the country's No. 1 outlet for political reporting?"

The answer, of course, is that online news -- the future of news -- is fast becoming the present.  With the advent of good RSS feedreaders, blogs and online news sites are definitely the way to go.  NewsNosh users already know this well.

I'm certain we'll see more such "defections" in the future, so much more that it will no longer be newsworthy.  Famous business reporters will start coming online, too. And other specialties will follow.

Why not?  Online news can be read quickly, bookmarked, blogged and e-mailed.  It can contain the written word, images, audio and video.  It can be constantly updated and linked to other related stories.  Makes newspapers seem quite ... old fashioned, doesn't it?

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