And for the record, I have yet to encounter a Snarkmarket post I haven’t liked. Which is to say, by all means keep dropping by, and keep those links coming!

@Adam O’Kane: Right on!

@Ted: That’s a great point. But it’s also why I think a separate, dedicated outlet could (maybe) be helpful. If its very mandate were to live outside the traditional news cycle (more on that here), such an outlet wouldn’t have to be concerned about catering to the “life cycle,” as you rightly put it, of that salacious little news nugget. Because the outlet itself, in theory, would dictate what that life cycle would be.

@PlebisPower: I agree — ProPublica is a good example of an outlet that’s doing a great job with sustaining interest in stories, promoting and provoking follow-ups, etc. Thanks for pointing that out.

Your example also raises an important point about funding: ProPublica is a nonprofit. So, I’d wager, are most of the other outlets we’d classify as “doing a good job keeping stories alive.” And I’d think, if the whole follow-up-focused-outlet idea were to transition from “thought experiment” to just “experiment,” it, too, would have to live outside the marketplace — via foundation funding or patron funding or what have you. The ability to step back from the fray — to have the patience and courage and, frankly, luxury to tell stories that might not get tons of page views, but that sustain memory over time — is something that a purely market-based funding model likely wouldn’t afford.

I’d love to be wrong about that; but I think ProPublica and their counterparts, in the great work they do keeping important stories alive, are actually the exception that proves the rule.

But it seems worth the shot. And maybe the media have been chastened enough our shortcomings in following up that we would report on the follow up if someone else did the heavy lifting.

I’ll try to add more thoughts, ’cause I think there’s really something to this. I would love to quickly drive a stake through the practice of using the Web to drop a giant depth presentation at the end of our investigation and basically wash our hands of it.