Hi Andy,
Many thanks for your response. Greatly appreciated. Those are two (or three) great questions. Quick responses:

• I have seen many signs of the editorial oversight you mention at smaller news startups. In many cases, these upstarts are being founded by editors from traditional publications and they bring those values with them, in other cases they hire those people in. However, more broadly, I’ve seen that the editorial mission is part of what forms the bond between the publication and readers. It’s an essential component.
• I agree that source protection isn’t likely to be as strong at smaller publications, at least initially. Part of the challenge is the cost of liability insurance, the other is the cost of legal defence. However, there are ways around that, as was demonstrated when Jesse Brown partnered with the Toronto Star to publish the Jian Ghomeshi investigation. Longer term, I would hope that professional associations like LION might help to mitigate this challenge with shared services.
• Similarly, I agree that it’s going to be a while before smaller upstarts can deliver on national discussions. But, as Mediapart in France demonstrates, the upstarts can eventually start to have an impact on how the larger mediascape discusses issues by publishing pieces that advance readers understanding of key issues.
• And, in terms of getting readers to listen to each other, it is often the startups like http://spaceshipmedia.org/ that are leading the way, and showing the larger, traditional news organizations how it can be done.

Hope that helps a bit,

Phillip.