Experiments

David Cohn, 2010-2011 Fellow

This is a summary of the event that took place at the Reynolds Journalism Institute on April 17th-19th made possible by the Knight Foundation and RJI.

David Cohn, 2010-2011 Fellow

In the aftermath of the $315 million sale of the Huffington Post to AOL there has been a kerfuffle from the unpaid bloggers who helped create value for the blogging network.

The Newspaper Guild has called for a strike, asking unpaid writers to hold their content. This week Jonathan Tasini has filed a lawsuit for $105 million on behalf of the 9,000 unpaid bloggers that have contributed content to the site.

David Cohn, 2010-2011 Fellow

It’s time to put up a topic for the next Carnival of Journalism. And the topic is #fail.

The best explanation can be found in the video below which also has the instructions on how the Carnival of Journalism will continue as I pass the reigns to other hosts. For those that prefer text, keep on reading (but you’ll miss all the jokes I inserted into the video).

David Cohn, 2010-2011 Fellow

From the launch of Spot.Us, I’ve always said the following:

* Anyone can tackle the crowdfunded journalism model. In fact, NPR could do it tomorrow and blow me out of the water. It’s just about being transparent and giving up control over how donation money gets spent.
* This model would have more success at the national or international level.
* This model would have more success if a known brand took the lead. (Again, I always tend to cite NPR.)

David Cohn, 2010-2011 Fellow

Harvard’s Nieman Lab asked me what I thought about the NY Times pay wall and I was really excited to see the title of their post “Please stop calling it a paywall.”

As I noted in my thoughts to them: “it’s somewhat inaccurate to call it that. It feels more like a pay-ramp.”

Before I explain further my thoughts on this much opined topic, I want to consider some of what other folks said.

To start: Steve Brill is a major proponent of this. I’m not surprised and while I respect Steve, he has an obvious dog in this race with his Press + company. He NEEDS the Times to succeed in order to get the lower end customers.

David Cohn, 2010-2011 Fellow

The New York Times has finally released some information about their upcoming pay-ramp which begins March 28th. I’m excited to see what happens but another part of me feels like there is a missed opportunity to explore new ways to change advertising so newspapers doesn’t close off to the web but can still increase revenue.

At SXSW I had the opportunity to catch up with Kurt Huang, founder of ThankThis, and test the latest iteration of his startup called “Juicy Bits.” I should start with a disclosure: I’m an advisor to ThankThis. But this post will not be a “pitch.” Rather, it’s a call for participation with a startup that has cuffed its ears and is listening for advice.

Brian Steffens, Director of Communications

Tips, notes and comments heard around SXSWi …

Most games are purchased, not free. … “Free games are laden with incentives to purchase (to get more features).” … Games drive a compulsion to spend/buy. … You need very low friction to grab payments.

David Cohn, 2010-2011 Fellow

As my last post insinuated – I find the private conversations in the hallways or over lunch to be the best part of SXSW. The panels are fantastic, but I greatly value the chance to meet folks from other industries, mindsets here at SXSW.

I ran into Clay Shirky as he was going to get something to eat and asked if I wanted to join. How could I pass up an opportunity like that? Before you accuse me of being a Shirky fanboy, let me proclaim it myself and move on.

David Cohn, 2010-2011 Fellow

I often find at conferences the size of SXSW the more interesting conversations happen in the hallway.

This year one that keeps coming up is the recent kerfuffle at NPR, the ousting of their CEO and the ongoing political and public relations battle that the organization faces post Juan Williams and now with the James O’Keefe video making the rounds.

David Herzog, 2010-2011 Fellow

More than 40 journalists, librarians, information professionals, citizens, students and consultants have signed up so far for Open Missouri Day March 17 at the Reynolds Journalism Institute.

Brian Steffens, Director of Communications

What’s next for AOL? Scooping up hyper-local blog aggregator Outside.in

Can Kachingle change or create behavior?

Borrell’s Mobitrove offers free mobile marketing data

A new look at navigation bars

The rise and fall of TBD

TBD: not everyone agrees

David Cohn, 2010-2011 Fellow

Spot.Us recently launched a new design, so this is an opportune time to write a “state of the spot” post — something we haven’t done since the website was six months old. I hope to lay out how far we’ve come and what’s on our plate and make a call to arms to the Spot.Us community and anyone else interested in the future of journalism.

David Cohn, 2010-2011 Fellow

We have 36+ responses to the broad question: “What can I do to increase the number of news sources?” Many of your sentiments overlapped, but each person brought a unique perspective to the mix. Several agreed that increasing news sources is a bad idea, and others championed it. That’s what this carnival is for — to dialogue and engage one another and the community at large. Thanks to everyone who contributed and a big thanks to Courtney Shove who helped sift through all the responses to produce the round-up below (making her officially the smartest person in the world on this topic). We are continuing the tradition of adding descriptors to as many names as possible, just trying to create a friendly atmosphere among friends. If you missed the Carnival, that’s okay – there is always next month and we’ll be in touch soon about it!