The New Netscape — the New Journalism?

There’s been a lot of attention today around the launch of the New Netscape. The site takes stories that are ranked highest by readers, then has an editor or writer follow up on the story, adding context and detail.

This hybrid approach (editor + collective) is fascinating, and it’s remarkable that Jason Calacanis and his team were able to pull this off. It’s almost irrelevant whether they succeed long-term — they’ve already been the first to demonstrate this model on a grand scale.

In the context of this weblog about local media, it got me wondering about how this would translate to news around Austin. For example, the five most emailed stories this week at Statesman.com are:

1. Albertson’s starts clearance sales
2. Playing for Jesus
3. District looks to fire Austin High art teacher
4. IKEA speeds up Round Rock opening to fall
5. Austin City Council wrestles with home-size limits

Based on direct reader feedback, the Statesman could assign more people to follow up on these stories and provide more angles than were in the original write-up.

Related:
Jason Calacanis: Meta-journalism Experiment Day One (or, Day One at my new startup: Netscape)
Scott Karp: AOL/Netscape’s Big Web 2.0 Test
Steve Rubel: First Look: Netscape’s Hybrid Journalism Site