Free content and no pay
BrooWaha is a LA-based collaborative online newspaper.(LAobserved) Interesting concept, but two things: the stories are rated by a popularity contest; and it doesn't appear to pay. No offense, but who is going to work for free?
On the otherhand, a much larger outfit , OhmyNews, a South Korean, web-based news operation has had profound affect on journalism in that country using the same concept, and they do pay certain writers. They also pay a number of editors. Well...I guess it can't be all bad.
Who is going to work for free?
Ask the million bloggers constantly writing stuff about what happens in the world. They would love to be paid of course, but mostly they want to be heard and become famous. That is their incentive to write.
But they want to make a living at it. That's my point. And as I point out, other similar sites do pay.