David Westphal at the Online Journalism Review reports that labor unions are funding two new news organizations, a move he reminds us is not unprecedented in the history of news:

Just in the last several months, two labor unions in southern California have provided six-figure funding for very different kinds of operations - Voice of Orange County, an independent news site working toward a January launch, and Accountable California, a direct arm of Local 721, Service Employees International Union.

The idea that legitimate journalism might flow from "special-interest" labor money would have seemed a non-starter to many of us not long ago. How could journalists provide fair and unfettered accounts when their paychecks were the product of an organization with a clear political agenda? In fact, though, Voice of Orange County and Accountable California are simply a revival of a kind of journalism that permeated American life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries - labor-backed newspapers.

As traditional media continue to cut staff and resources for news, we wish anyone well who's trying to find an alternative model for providing the information that the public needs and wants.

That's what Texas Watchdog has been doing for over a year now. That's what The Texas Tribune, an Austin-based nonprofit that launched last week, is doing. And similar efforts have been cropping up in the past few years all over the country.

As the models get road-tested, we remain optimistic for the future of journalism and an informed public in America.