Business
L3C: Explaining the new corporate form for journalism
Bill Densmore interviews Jennifer Towery and Robert Lang AUDIO: Explaining the L3C — a new lease for newspapers? Jennifer Towery and Robert Lang are an unlikely alliance. Towery: A young editor from DeKalb, Ill., and union president at a chain-owned daily in Peoria. Lang: a retired costmetics manfacturer from Westchester County, N.Y. But each shares … Continued
The value of privacy
Citizens need privacy as a shield against the state as well as corporate power. Legally, privacy is thought of a protection from other things. Contested commodities Research shows that people may be willing to part with what is known as contested commodities. People may be willing to trade private information for goods and services. In … Continued
Who’s who?
Jeff Vander Clute, President Jeff is founder of Semesphere, Inc., a Palo Alto, CA-based consulting firm that developed several social media and networking applications. Jeff has known and worked with Bill for 15 years, and provided the technical lead on “The Information Valet Project.” He was the principal developer of the Internet’s first mass-market social … Continued
In new news orgs, a glimpse at journalism founded on value, not mass
A few weeks back, John Thornton invited me to Austin, Tex., to take a look at his news organization in-the-making, a team of powerhouse journalists from all over the state who are assembling the ambitious effort that will be the Texas Tribune. Before coming to RJI, I worked in for-profit newsrooms, where the constant primary … Continued
Want news?
Listen to more interviews conducted for the Media Giraffe Project at UMass Amherst. Download an MP3 podcast for offline listening. Audio: Bill Densmore interviewed at KTRS St. Louis about IVP Can news organizations figure out a way to increase the value they receive for journalism on the World Wide Web? McGraw Milhaven, talkmaster on KTRS … Continued
Bill Densmore: The information valet project research proposal
Are people willing to pay for information online? Do they truly value privacy? What kind of information are consumers looking for online? To sustain an information valet economy — and along with it both participatory democracy and journalism — the next generation Internet needs a user-focused system for sharing identity, exchanging and settling value (including … Continued
Building new ad revenues could start on the obit page
An interview with Stephanie Padgett as she begins her fellowship year. About five years ago, Stephanie Padgett was doing market research to help smaller, Midwestern newspapers and radio stations. It was quite clear that her research on how to reach more consumers would be useless if the media companies didn’t change their old habits. For … Continued
A Look at CircLabs’ plans to track your browsing to serve news (and ads)
Stealth startup CircLabs launched in late May with the goal of “sustaining” the business of journalism by bundling content, social features and ads, while giving readers a single platform for subscriptions and micro-payments to multiple publications. Now, EVP Martin Langeveld offers some details on how the company plans to do it: with a browser add-on … Continued
Firing neurons, building relationships: Washington D.C. Conference
Washington, D.C. — The Radio and TV Museum inside George Washington University displays journalism’s past: a Philco Model 42-350, a 1942 radio to first offer FM broadcasts. Its fame soon faded: the museum notes 1945-57 was “dismal,” as television ate up once-loyal FM audience and advertisers. Dusty radio relics reminded journalists, bloggers and software geeks … Continued
In his own words: A selection of Matt Thompson’s blog entries Part 2
The W-bomb Sept. 22, 2008 You can’t tell from my blogging, but I’ve gotten rather sensitive about the word “Wikipedia.” Earlier this year, after I’d written my research proposal, I was casting about for a title to communicate the core concept I hoped to pursue. I recalled a whitepaper by Shayne Bowman, Ellen Kampinsky and … Continued