Over the past 15 years, Ken Doctor has served as a news media industry critic. Doctor started out as publisher and editor of an alt weekly and he also warns about hedge-fund ownership of news outlets in a column he writes for Harvard University’s Nieman Journalism Lab, reports New York Times.
He has also worked as a consultant for media companies and is also the president of Newsonomics. He also held the same post at Content Bridges.
Additionally, he has also worked various editorial roles at Knight Ridder New Media, Saint Paul Pioneer Press, Boulder City Camera and Oregon Magazine.
Now, at 70, Doctor is launching his own news outlet, “Lookout Local” and its flagship site, “Lookout Santa Cruz,” covering the California county.
“I came to the epiphany of putting both sides of my brain together,” Doctor said. “I’m an analyst. I understand the business. At the same time, I realized I lived in a worsening and worsening news desert.”
This will put Doctor in direct competition with Alden Global Capital. Alden also controls MediaNews Group, the parent company of The Santa Cruz Sentinel, which will directly rival Doctor’s Lookout Santa Cruz.
