Feder: Jim O'Shea is back with new vision to fix journalism's broken model

Jim O'Shea's latest effort to breathe new life into public-service journalism combines a forward-looking news media technology startup with a 137-year-old weekly newspaper in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood, Robert Feder writes.

For years the former managing editor of the Chicago Tribune has been in the forefront of finding ways to fix what he calls the "broken business model" of a news industry corroded by bean counters. His 2011 book, The Deal from Hell: How Moguls and Wall Street Plundered Great American Newspapers, was a vivid indictment of the greed and arrogance of predatory owners.

O'Shea's last grand venture was the Chicago News Cooperative, a fatally flawed experiment (in partnership with The New York Times) that folded in 2012 after a little more than two years.

Now he's gone back to the drawing board to create CityXones, a tech startup designed to help local journalism organizations find a sustainable business model. O'Shea's partners are Bill Parker, who worked with him at the Tribune and the CNC, and Marisa Bryce, an entrepreneur and lawyer with experience in Silicon Valley.

Get the full report, and more Chicago media news, at robertfeder.com.