Bill Densmore’s “Information Valet Project” (now Information Trust Exchange) at RJI started from a premise that news organizations must cultivate deeper, one-on-one trust relationships with consumers as stewards of their privacy and curators of their information needs. From this premise, Densmore proposed the creation of a multi-industry, shared-user network for trust, identity and information commerce. Densmore’s paper, “From Paper to Persona,” called for creation of an independent, public-benefit Information Trust Association initiative to create the network marketplace framework.
"Sustaining journalism is not merely a matter of establishing a payment mechanism or more effective advertising. It also requires maintaining a dialog among the public and news practitioners about the values, principles and purposes of journalism."
Stories about Information Trust Exchange
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Media experts huddle to map a plan for the future of digital news
Digital news publishers — especially at the community level — are in a fight for survival. Most news sites get crumbs in ad revenue compared to big commercial sites like Yahoo and Autotrader.
May 20, 2015 -
Privacy, personalization and payment
When it comes to getting paid, who are news organizations competing with, and what can they do about it? First answer: They aren’t competing with each other. They are competing with all of the other things consumers spend information-access dollars on.
In the new news ecosystem, getting paid requires asking, listening, personalizing, bundling
March 10, 2015 -
Privacy, personalization and payment
For nearly a century, most people thought of privacy in terms of blocking yourself off from unwanted scrutiny. But networked technology has introduced a new meaning — the right, or ability, to negotiate the commercial value of one’s data profiles.
Privacy: The evolving meaning of a single word for our networked news and information economy
February 27, 2015 -
Privacy, personalization and payment
It was a symbiotic relationship — mass-market advertising and local journalism. Now the two are heading for divorce. Is any reconciliation possible?
Is it time for the news industry to get smarter about advisortising?
February 12, 2015 -
Privacy, personalization and payment
Throughout several months of interviewing more than 85 journalists, educators, technologists, researchers, activists and citizens, it was easy to fall back on what journalists want or what the news media needs — or our ideas of what democracy needs.
Imagining the 21st-century personal news experience — and how to create it
February 3, 2015 -
Can an ‘exchange’ help solve the problem of monetizing digital news?
News, especially at the local and hyperlocal levels, is in deep crisis. The public consumes news more voraciously than ever in the vibrant digital space.
January 29, 2015 -
Privacy, personalization and payment
What will sustain journalism in service of democracy?
The future begins with P: Privacy, personalization and payment
January 28, 2015 -
“Solutions” and journalism grow closer together — what are implications for independence?
There is increasing momentum driving the idea that mainstream journalism should include the notion that it is not only OK but essential for reporters to report and even help convene community conversation around "solutions" to problems.
June 5, 2013 -
Is covering climate change going to be ultimate test of the value of journalism?
Is covering climate change going to be ultimate test of the value of journalism?
April 10, 2013 -
Another voice explains why newspapers must move beyond the news
Are newspapers doomed if they confine themselves to the news? Steve Gray thinks so, and he has good reasons to say so.
September 12, 2012 -
Pivot Point: A first step for sharing next steps — listserv
Proponents of projects broached at RJI's Pivot Point gathering in June now have an initial place to share ideas and action steps.
August 10, 2012 -
Pivot Point: Next steps
Pivot Point Chicago: Why we gathered, what we did, and what should happen next.
July 24, 2012 -
AUDIO: Are privacy, identity and trust building blocks for new news ecology? A discussion
At the New England Newspaper & Press Association annual convention in Boston on Feb. 11, RJI consulting fellow Bill Densmore leads a discussion of the role of privacy, identity and trust in doing so.
February 12, 2012 -
Spot.us and Public Insight Network — nuancing support for civic journalism; exploring “persona”
The combination of crowd-source journalism payment pioneer Spot.us with the non-profit Public Insight Network (PIN) — which is testing the waters of what could become a news-focused sharing service — is intriguing for the possibilities.
November 29, 2011 -
Dominant form of journalism foretold by Reynolds Journalism Institute
Bill Densmore, a consulting fellow at the Reynolds Journalism Institute, reveals a comprehensive proposal for re-establishing news providers on an economically and socially sustainable foundation.
August 15, 2011 -
Joplin paper editor finds tornado affirms mission of journalism
“If people are saying newspapers are dead they don’t really know what stuff we are made of,” Joplin Globe Editor Carol Stark told members of the Newspaper Association Managers.
August 8, 2011 -
A CALL TO ACTION: Time to make the marketplace for privacy, trust, identity and information commerce
As news and the economics of newspapers come unglued, what will sustain journalism? The answer involves a challenge and an opportunity.
August 4, 2011 -
From paper to persona
“From Paper to Persona: Managing Privacy and Information Overload; Sustaining Journalism in an Attention Age,” explains how a new public-benefit collaboration could help slow the shrinking of American journalism.
August 4, 2011 -
Journalism couple studying best U.S. dailies for why they matter finds transformation, not death
Two retired journalists set out a year on a project to learn why the best newspapers in America matter to their communities. In the process, the’ve started to document a story they feel is different from the now-common refrain: “Newspapers are dying.”
July 4, 2011 -
Role of journalist seen as evolving to curating the stream; wasn’t it always?
Ex-network TV producer Steven Rosenbaum, in a new book, "Curation Nation: How to Win in a World Where Consumers are Creators," argues the information stream is growing so fast we are being overwhelmed.
July 2, 2011 -
Honoring an original citizen media watchdog with a new community-information resource for small town
Entrepreneurs are testing methods for delivering news that matters to small communities. In the small New England town of Williamstown, a non-profit organization begun in the 1980s has revived and turned to testing the waters for a new approach.
May 21, 2011 -
Consensus on journalist-library collaboration begins to emerge at “Beyond Books”
A draft consensus statement for journalist/librarian collaboration is circulating after garnering support at “Beyond Books: News, Literacy, Democracy and America’s Libraries,” a two-day Journalism That Matters symposium in Cambridge April 6-7.
April 8, 2011 -
What do we mean by engagement? An RJI fellow ponders
In 2008-2009, Donald W. Reynolds Fellow Mike Fancher concluded that journalists needed to develop a “new ethic of public engagement” as an enhancement or amendment to The Journalist’s Creed.
February 13, 2011 -
Yahoo: An unlikely source for a journalism stylebook?
Giving away a stylebook at the Online News Association convention, above, is Chris Barr, an editor at Yahoo Inc.
October 29, 2010 -
ONA ADVISORY: The Public Insight Network from Minneapolis will be out in force
One of the most innovative, ongoing projects in community and citizen media is the Public Insight Network Project launched by Andrew Haeg and Michael Skoler six years ago at Minnesota Public Radio.
October 23, 2010 -
IDEA? Steve Outing has created a public Facebook Group to consider ideas for “membership models”
Steve Outing, in Boulder, Colo., a veteran observer and columnist on the new-media/journalism scene, has created a public Facebook Group (kind of like a mailing list but web only) to discuss ideas for "membership models" to support journalism.
October 23, 2010 -
PAYWALL/CHARGING: NYTimes CEO’s audio interview comments at the World Editor’s Forum, Hamburg
Here is New York Times Co. CEO Janet Robinson at the World Editor's Forum, Hamburg, Germany, Oct. 7, 2010, as posted by EditorsWebLog reporter/editor Emma Heald.
October 9, 2010 -
Is the iPad really the savior for magazine and newspaper publishers? One view
One case against iPad as a saviour for publishers — like putting your readers and press in a black box with no key?
September 26, 2010 -
STANDARDS: Facebook founder/CEO Zuckerberg doesn’t want the web to die — he calls for standards
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the current environment — having to build apps multiple times for multiple proprietary platforms — is broken and even a big company like Facebook can't deal with that long term.
September 23, 2010 -
DATAPOINT: Why network neutrality won’t matter on wired Internet only — three years
Paul Sagan was a fitting choice to provide the introductory remarks on universal broadband and the National Broadband Plan on Day Two of the Aspen Institute Forum on Communications and Society.
August 20, 2010 -
On net neutrality: What if Eisenhower had asked private industry to build our Interstates?
We've been digesting and thinking about yesterday's Google/Verizon statement about how to build out fast Internet for America — and trying to think of analogies that put the issue in terms non-geeks can understand.
August 10, 2010 -
Coffeeshop newsroom concept catching on — two fellows working it; so is Starbucks
The idea of assigning reporters to work from coffee shops and other public spaces is gradually picking up steam. Both David Cohn and Bill Densmore have been pitching the idea for a few years.
August 6, 2010 -
AUDIO: Community media and the future of news
Reynolds Journalism Institute consultant Bill Densmore moderates a panel at the Alliance for Community Media in Pittsburgh: "Community Media and the Future of News."
August 3, 2010 -
AUDIO: Explaining the Information Trust Association idea
In this 22-minute audio podcast, Bill Densmore of the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI) explains the evolution of the Information Trust Association idea.
July 24, 2010 -
AUDIO: Five minutes about InfoValet on WJR Detroit’s Frank Beckman show
In a five-minute audio podcast, CircLabs Inc. co-founder and Information Valet Project director Bill Densmore talks with Frank Beckman, live on WJR-AM Detroit, about an idea for one-ID, one-account, one-bill access to web news information.
July 19, 2010 -
DC think-tank strategist warns PEG-access TV operators of “uber” radio spectrum policy battles
Cable public-access station operators were given a strong dose of media policy on Thursday at their annual convention as a Washington, D.C. think-tank leader urged them to join an "urber" political battle playing out among telecommunications companies.
July 8, 2010 -
As dots connect, whole emerges for future of news
That's a conversation that is continuing at a higher pitch and urgency June 24 at "From Blueprint to Building: Making the Market for Digital Information," which Bill Densmore calls an action congress for trust, identity and Internet information commerce.
June 14, 2010 -
Did the New York Times just declare war on news aggregators?
It looks like the New York Times, Apple and the handiwork of some Stanford students, the Pulse News reader, are in the midst of moving around the copyright bar. A bit.
June 8, 2010 -
June 23-25 “congress” gathering aims to establish trust, identity, commerce services for news
Three U.S. newspaper trade groups and the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute are teaming up to seed ideas and a possible solution to how news and other information can be managed and sold online.
May 22, 2010 -
Panel: Law and ethics in a changing media ecosystem
This panel looks at the challenges, both legal and journalistic, facing journalism ventures that seek to build and maintain online communities, from article comments to community forums and blogs.
April 21, 2010 -
AP promises news app will be “on the iPad” when Apple delivers tablet next month
The Associated Press will have a news application on the iPad when Apple begins delivering the new tablet device next month, according to James Kennedy, the news cooperative's vice president of strategy.
March 14, 2010 -
Consortium idea leads RJI iPad/E-reader symposium discussion on final day
U.S., Korean and Japanese news-industry strategists wrapup up today three days in Missouri to assess the impact of the soon-to-be-launched Apple iPad on the news business.
March 9, 2010 -
INSIGHT: From Paul Gillin — Curation’s growing value
Curation is an increasingly important part of the information value chain . . . Trusted curators who point us to the most valuable sources of information for our interests will become the new power brokers. Matt Drudge figured this out many years ago . . .
March 5, 2010 -
FTC tackles economics, technology, ownership and antitrust in “workshop”-style hearings next week
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission will tackle economics, technology, ownership and antitrust as it convenes next week the second of two "workshop"-style hearings on the future of journalism.
March 4, 2010 -
Discussion finds pros and cons to new ownership forms
Putting journalism under non-profit ownership is no panacea for financing it, a six-person panel found during an 80-minute discussion at the New England Newspaper & Press Association annual meeting in Boston moderated by 2008-2009 RJI Fellow Bill Densmore.
February 5, 2010 -
UPDATE: Session notes, photos and audio from JTM-Seattle at RJI Wiki
You can now get a sense of the energy level at Journalism That Matters-Pacific Northwest, the four-day convening at the University of Washington which RJI is co-sponsoring.
January 9, 2010 -
LINKS: Journalism That Matters-Pacific Northwest
We'll be blogging the Journalism That Matters, Pacific Northwest confab which begins at 2 p.m. PACIFIC on Thursday.
January 6, 2010 -
The 5 key questions about generating revenue from online content
In an interview with the American Press Institute, 2008-2009 Reynolds Fellow Bill Densmore outlines four things digital news consumers want, what the media ecosystem will look like in five years.
December 14, 2009 -
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.
October 2, 2009 -
Who’s who?
Who's who in the Information Valet Project.
October 2, 2009 -
L3C: Explaining the new corporate form for journalism
Bill Densmore interviews Jennifer Towery and Robert Lang explaining the L3C — a new lease for newspapers?
October 2, 2009 -
Bill Densmore: The information valet project research proposal
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 for digital information.
September 29, 2009 -
Want news?
The news is THE news these days if you live in, say, Denver, or Seattle, or San Francisco, or just about any big city. Some are shrinking to one-newspaper towns. Others, like Denver, will have no daily paper soon.
September 29, 2009 -
Tech giants offer ideas on charging readers online
CircLabs, run by just four people and incubated at the Missouri School of Journalism, is developing a program that would feed news from different sources into a bar across the top of Web browsers.
September 11, 2009 -
Is Circulate the Geritol the news industry needs?
Think of it as updated Geritol, a tonic for an industry with tired blood. Its founders call it Circulate, and it's the latest "solution" to address the woes of newspapers.
July 7, 2009 -
News after newspapers
With the crisis of shrinking advertising revenues and dwindling profits that is facing our major newspapers, innovative new revenue ideas are emerging that promise to reinvent journalism in the age of the internet.
June 24, 2009 -
Details emerge for news distribution start-up
I mentioned about a new service called Circulate that promises to help people find more relevant news and information while helping the companies that produce that information find more ways to pay for it.
June 24, 2009 -
Densmore, others unveil CircLabs; Aim to sustain journalism
Martin Langeveld, Jeff Vander Clute, Joe Bergeron, and Bill Densmore unveil CircLabs Inc., a concept to help sustain journalism. They will be exploring paid-content models for newspaper Web sites.
June 23, 2009 -
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.
June 22, 2009 -
CircLabs’ Bill Densmore on tracking readers’ habits to build new revenue streams for news
CircLabs, the hard-to-describe startup that aims to create new revenue streams for news sites, has detailed a little more about its plans. And Martin Langeveld, who’s involved in the project, has written more about it too.
June 22, 2009 -
Web 3.0
You know timing really is everything. Just the other day, I explained the semantic web. At the time, I didn’t realize how many projects were already near completion to help those predictions about more intelligent computers to come true.
June 22, 2009 -
Circulate enters the fray: Holistic, user-centric content discovery tool
A few weeks ago in Washington DC, my partners and I announced the formation of CircLabs and the intent to develop a product "code-named" Circulate, incubated at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri.
June 21, 2009 -
Charging online readers: Not if, but how?
It is becoming increasingly clear that a proportion of general news content is going to be put behind some kind of a pay wall in upcoming months.
June 10, 2009 -
A perfect storm for the demise of journalism ... or for the rebirth of the journalist
The news about news has been focused on failing newspapers, for which many blaming the Internet, Google, the unions, journalists, owners, and even consumers.
June 5, 2009 -
Paying for news online — is this the beta model?
Young insurgents plan a conference in Chicago on the future of media, while newspapers' old guard huddles near O'Hare.
May 28, 2009 -
Reynolds Institute joining new online news venture
The Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri is joining with four entrepreneurs in CircLabs Inc., a Silicon Valley-based venture working to finance online news, according to a release.
May 28, 2009 -
Individual perspectives: The road ahead and who else needs to be involved
More than 100 industry leaders gathered in Washington DC to create a new business model for journalism. Hear informal comments from attendees.
May 27, 2009 -
Firing neurons, building relationships: Washington D.C. Conference
An overview of the May 27th event and the announcement of CircLabs, a startup designed to create new revenue streams for news sites.
May 27, 2009 -
Sessions on Video: Steve Mott, Merrill Brown, Walter Isaacson, others kick off the discussion
Forum sponsored by RJI in partnership with The George Washington University, Washington D.C., May 27, 2009.
May 27, 2009 -
U.S. journalism institute, entrepreneurs in news venture
A US journalism institute and four entrepreneurs announced Wednesday they have joined forces in a Silicon Valley-based venture called CircLabs aimed at financing online news.
May 27, 2009 -
Researcher-entrepreneur JV CircLabs to offer publishers new ad-targeting service
Can a new tech service that packages online news with social media features and a multi-tiered payment system (including subscriptions and micro-payments) save journalism?
May 27, 2009 -
Info Valet leads to Circulate
Sorry, wedding planners: happy couples will soon have a faster and cheaper way to find ads for discounted designer duds or a Consumer Reports articles on best honeymoon getaways.
May 6, 2009 -
Blueprinting the information valet economy
A senior level strategy session combined with a public symposium designed to blueprint the law, ownership-management, marketing and technology of a shared-network for user centric demographics, privacy protected purchasing and advertising exchange.
December 6, 2008
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