Yesterday, I spent $10 to support David Brauer of MinnPost and the work he does there. If you don’t follow me on Twitter or sit next to me at work, you might not know how very much I love David Brauer. I do!

I work in the, for lack of a better term, online space. I watch what’s going on in the advertising and journalism world like a hawk. I know times is tough for everyone, but these two industries that I follow with interest are being hit especially hard. I read articles every day about what can maybe might should save advertising or journalism. So far I don’t think anyone has found a plausible solution.

Since making the donation, I have been trying to figure out what exactly motivated me to pony up. The fact that MinnPost was asking for a small amount (to me anything less than $20 — the cost of a new hardcover — can be spent without thought or debate) and made it totally easy (all I had to do was login to paypal) definitely played a roll. As I spend more and more time online (because of the job), I notice that I have less and less patience with anything that seems like it’s more involved than it should be.

But I know there was more than ease of use going on there. I don’t think I’d have shelled out the cash if he were blogging on his own domain. For some reason, the fact that he is part of a news organization somehow legitimizes his work. I wonder if that’s my j-school bias showing.

Maybe it’s the topic that he blogs about — local media — that moved me to donate. If he were writing about the MN legislature, I doubt I’d have parted with my money.

It makes me wonder if it’s going to be that magical combination of writer + subject + audience that is the future of journalism. Are we, as consumers, willing to pay for the news that interests us written by writers whose work we admire? Will that even work?

I think what might had influenced my impulse donation the most was that I felt as though I were supporting another person. I don’t know Brauer, but I read his blog and follow him on Twitter. He seems more real and not just a cold byline in a newspaper.