Prior to the telegraph, the distribution of news was regulated by the speed of the mail, but now news was potentially both instantaneous and simultaneous.
Obviously, the service has tremendous value as a layer of distribution for news outlets and media producers, including The New Yorker.
Increasing numbers of people however are using new media for information access and onward distribution of news.
There is no question that Facebook's unprecedented power over the distribution of news is increasingly disturbing.
However, the best chance for more sales (or advertising-funded distribution) of news apps has to come from having more users.
This emerging journalistic ecosystem, in which the gathering and distribution of news is becoming much more widely dispersed, holds great potential.
The Twitter direction is clear: It has found itself as an ad hoc, albeit still inchoate, but ever-increasing focal point for the distribution of news.
For the first time, vertical distribution of news, from a specialist elite to a general audience, had a decisive advantage over horizontal distribution among citizens.
But, even before the current recession struck, the basic sales model for print media began falling apart: Craigslist destroyed the classified-advertising base, department stores consolidated and advertised less, and the Internet made the free distribution of news the norm.
