Midwest newspapers anti-up $30K to eye for-profit collaborative to monetize Internet content

Three Midwest newspaper associations — Kansas, Missouri and Iowa — met Nov. 20 and formed a coordinated effort to manage monetization of their content on the web, raising in minutes an initial $30,000 to start planning. They’ve asked a retiring executive of the Iowa Press Association, Bill Monroe, to look into the idea. A key part of the idea is a for-profit corporation, owned by the nation’s newspapers, to coordinate the effort.

Original oganizers of the task force were Doug Anstaett, executive director of the Kansas Press Association; Bill Monroe, deputy executive director of the Iowa Newspaper Association; and Doug Crews, executive director of the Missouri Press Association.

At Friday’s meeting, says Monroe, publishers present pledged “about $30,000 in 90 seconds” to help the project get through the next phase — talking to key media people nationwide and creating an inventory of all possible approaches to how to get paid for online content.

READ MORE: http://www.newshare.com/wiki/index.php/Jta-associations

What will be the future economic supports for journalism?

I was asked today to provide one key thought about te future economics of journalism. Here’s what I said:

The future economic supports for journalism will have to be multifaceted, because no single stream will do it. There will be direct support from users — subscriptions, per-click, patronage, donations. And there will be indirect support — advertising. But I think the advertising piece will be vastly smaller than than it is today because the big marketplaces are going away. Advertising in the future will be one-to-one, practically, so the application of news as a driver/draw will just not be there. Journalism will have to stand on its own. And that means we will have to make the case for its relevance to citizens and to democracy every day. There will be a real divergence between entertainment journalism — which will be supported by third-party sponsors who are trying to sell a product or service — and accountability journalism, which will be supported by third-party sponsors who are selling ideas and change.

– Bill Densmore

NAA effort launched to identify features of “content” people will pay for: Tweet #newspay

The National Newspaper Association has launched an informal exercise to try assemble best thinking about types of content the public might be willing to pay for. The effort is noted in a comment to a post by veteran news executive Alan Mutter on his blog, Reflections of a Newsosaur:

LINK:
http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2009/10/how-to-sell-news-on-web-checklist.html

In one comment, Beth Lawton, a digital strategist at the Newspaper Association of America, wrote: “NAA is working on getting a conversation rolling about this topic. Please cross-post your comments to Twitter (#newspay) or to NAA’s Facebook page. Nice work getting this started, Alan! Thanks!”

http://www.facebook.com/NewspaperAssociationOfAmerica

In his post, Mutter lists four types of news-oriented information a publisher might arguably convince a user to pay for, including intensive, comprehensive, exclusive local news, news that helps the reader make money or avoid losing money, or exclusive entertainment stories.

Mutter suggests rating information on a five-point matrix of attractiveness for attempting a paid content experiement. These include, Mutter wrotes: Uniqueness, routiness, time sensitivity, business urgency, entertainment value, localness and relationship to home economics.

In interview, Google’s Schmidt comes off rather supportive of newspapers’ role in democracy

The topical blog Search Engine Land and its editor-in-chief, Danny Sullivan, scored a long interview with Google CEO Eric Schmidt posted Sat., Oct. 3, at 8 a.m. In it, Schmidt comes off as rather supportive of newspapers’ role supporting democracy through investigative journalism, says he sees it as a “moral obligation” of Google to help the news industry, but reveals no specifics about how Google might do so. Here’s the link:

http://searchengineland.com/google-ceo-eric-schmidt-on-newspapers-journalism-27172

Knight Commission report on community news needs streamed live on Oct. 2

What are the news and information needs of communities?

A two-year inquiry by a joint Aspen Institute-Knight Foundation study commission will issue its findings on the subject on Friday — and you can watch their report live and follow the Twitter stream via the hashtag #knightcomm.

Erin Silliman, who is project manager of the communications and society program at the Aspen Institute advises the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities, says the meeting will be streamed live from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. EDT from this URL: http://www.knightcomm.org

To view the full agenda and speakers, go to:
http://tinyurl.com/yb4ud5w

A project of the Aspen Institute and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the “Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy” will be meeting at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.

During it’s last meeting in May, the commission’s discussion followed these themes:

– Information is vital to people, both in regard to the quality of their individual lives and in their ability to participate in the public space.

– People who lack access to digital information or the skills to use it risk becoming second-class citizens.

– Information is a public good and needs to be thought of and supported in that way.

– Journalism plays a critical in role in the lives of people, in the health of communities and in the functioning of democracy

After opening remarks by president and CEO of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Alberto Ibargüen, and Knight Commission co-chairs Marissa Mayer and Theodore B. Olson, the Commission will present the Report to Julius Genachowski, Chairman of the FCC, and other government officials.

Knight commissioners and other leaders will then engage in a multi-panel discussion on the commission¹s recommendations. Mayer is a Google Inc. execugtive and Olson is a retired U.S. solicitor general.

Silliman says there will be lots of information at that website address beginning on Friday at 5 p.m. EDT as well as two ways to view the written report — a fully downloadable PDF file or via individual HTML pages online.

“We will also begin a national dialogue on the report and the Commission’s recommendations beginning Friday,” says Silliman. “We will have a very exciting and interactive web ready in conjunction with the release of the report.”

Silliman invites questions at erin.silliman@aspeninst.org or (202) 736-5851.

Live blogging the Midwest Newspaper Summit

We’re live-blogging the Midwest Newspaper Summit in Dubuque, Iowa, today.

Click Here to View Live Blog.

You can also follow the RSS feed.

Join the disussion at the American Press Institute

More than 40 newspaper-industry executives, researchers and advisors are gathered at the American Press Institute in Reston, Va. today for the two-day convening, “Newsmedia Economic Action Plan Conference.” The event follows the May release of the API report: “Newspaper Economic Action Plan.” The idea of organizers is to use an open-space style event to consider what newspapers can do to sustain journalism and their business.

Click Here To Watch the CoverItLive running blog discussion (and participate)

At 9:30 a.m. EASTERN today, two experts on newspaper website analytics will be unveiling an initial tranche of research on some 100 sites. Gregory Harmon of Belden Interactive and Greg Swanson of ITZ Publishing will make
the case that newspapers can move to selectively charge for content without losing the majority of their online advertising revenue.

The event was by-invitation only, but organizers have invited live blogging of the Harmon/Swanson session as a service to the news industry. You can follow the participants’ blogging by going to this link:

http://tinyurl.com/ps38bc at or after 9:30 a.m. EASTERN.

Some people may post or comment on the blogstream via Twitter using the
hashtag: #apinewsmedia

And this temporary URL will carry informational updates about the event through the day and until it’s conclusion at mid-day on Tuesday: http://www.journalismtrust.org

EVENT HOME PAGE

WIKI BACKGROUND PAGE

API’s Mary Glick says she and colleague Mary Peskin framed the conference around API’s NEAP White  Paper, an integrated five-point plan to guide the news industry  through the current disruptions and position itself for the future  by:

• Establishing a true value for news content online and generating revenue from it.
• Maintaining the free flow of content and monetizing it equitably.
• Thwarting unauthorized re-use of content that originates in newspapers.
• Investing in technologies that enhance the user experience and provide content-based e-commerce, data sharing and other revenue solutions.
• Adapting revenue strategies from those focused on advertisers to those focused on consumers.

Announcing CircLabs Inc. — helping news industry to find a business model on the web

Jeff Vander Clute announces in Washington, D.C., on May 27, 2009, a partnership among four entrepreneurs and the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism. Vander Clute is president of the Silicon Valley startup, CircLabs Inc. Vander Clute is followed by Martin Langeveld, CircLab’s executive vice president. For more information go to: CircLabs.com

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Vander Clute Unveils CircLabs

Jeff Vander Clute, entrepreneur, founder of Semesphere Inc., and a consultant to the Information Valet Project, announced the launch of CircLabs Inc. at the “From Gatekeeper to Information Valet” conference on May 27.

Vander Clute is a co-founder of CircLabs along with Bill Densmore, a Reynolds Fellow, Martin Langeveld a veteran newspaper editor, Joe Bergeron a serial entrepreneur. 

The Silicon Valley-based start-up will offer a suite of services, the first of which is code-named “Circulate.” The services focus on  generating revenue for online news.  CircLabs is set to launch in the second half of 2009.

CircLabs was hatched at the University of Missouri’s Reynolds Journalism Institute’s (RJI) fellowship program, and grew out of research led by Bill Densmore a 2008-2009 Reynolds Fellow.  RJI is supporting the startup and will be an equity stakeholder.

A Prelude to the FTC workshops. Mark Dec. 1-2, 2009

The Federal Trade Commission is holding a series of workshops titled “Can News Media Survive the Internet Age?” Competition, Consumer Protection, and First Amendment Perspectives.” The first one debuts on December 1-2, 2009.

Susan DiSanti director of the FTC’s Office of Policy Planning, paid a visit to our conference and offered a brief preview of the workshops to come.

Check out the press release at http://ftc.gov/opa/2009/08/news2009.shtm

“We’re very much in favor of competition,” DiSanti says, noting that as media evolves certain topics such as consumer and identity protection will be at the forefront.

Why the workshops?

“This is really our attempt to understand what is going on and move the discussion,” she says. “W e aren’t looking for a place where answers are found.”

Stay tuned.