I too hope ProPublica succeeds -- if for no other reason than that the Associated Press probably needs some help. I believe the AP has been forced by their budget-cutting (read: editorial-staff-cutting) clients into taking over the investigative role; these papers subscribe to AP and tell it what they want and AP has had to come up with the goods. Not that AP hasn't always provided overviews and/or detailed articles on key topics -- it's just my gut-feeling that they've had to do more of it lately. But regardless, ProPublica may well be the shot in the arm that the news biz needs. Let's hope so.