Yeah definitely the Merc News was a pioneer on the web and in many other ways: https://archives.cjr.org/feature/the_newspaper_that_almost_seized_the_future.php

Yeah definitely the Merc News was a pioneer on the web and in many other ways: https://archives.cjr.org/feature/the_newspaper_that_almost_seized_the_future.php https://archives.cjr.org/feature/the_newspaper_that_almost_s... It's hard to imagine now, but papers like the Merc News – thanks to basically having a virtual monopoly – were basically printing presses for money. They most definitely had the capital to fund ventures that could save the company, such as their own Craigslist or Groupon. And I believe they and other news companies did blow a good chunk of money on failed tech ventures. In hindsight, they should've continued throwing money at greenfield projects, since just about any longshot success would've been better than the current state of things. But it's too easy and reductive to say, "Well the news industry should've just invented Google/Facebook if it really wanted to survive".