The document proposes creating an "Information Valet" system to help sustain journalism through a shared user network. It would allow consumers to access news and content across multiple websites using a single account, while getting compensated for viewing ads through micropayments. Publishers and advertisers could also participate by sharing revenues and targeting ads better through personalized user profiles managed by the "Valets" with user consent. This could create new revenue streams for news organizations and a simplified online experience for consumers with more control over their data and access to premium content.

1. Building the Information Valet Economy Sustaining news and information through a shared-user network http://www.Informationvalet.org http://www.ivpblueprint.org Bill Densmore Reynolds Journalism Institute Missouri School of Journalism Columbia, MO [email_address] October 10, 2008

4. “ The evidence is mounting that the news industry must become more aggressive about developing a new economic model.” --Project for Excellence in Journalism, The State of the Media 2007 Problem recognition

5. “ ‘ Long term, we've got to get paid for news (online) or we can't keep producing it,’ [Singleton] said. But he said that it has to be an industry-wide solution and not just one paper acting alone.” -- Dean Singleton, CEO, Media News Group Posted April 28, 2006 at: http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/business/14446579.htm Problem recognition

7. Strategy convening Dec. 3-5, 2008 Columbia, Mo. www.ivpblueprint.org Blueprinting the shared user/value network Teams to form on marketing (research), advertising, governance, network/payments, technology, content, user experience . . . what else?

8. “ We must change how we charge for content . . . One-size-fits-all on the business side has to evolve. Tiered pricing with premiums for timeliness or comprehensiveness is one option.” - Tom Curley, AP CEO, Nov. 10, 2007 Solutions

9. “ . . . [T]he more time I’ve spent on this, while I think there are legal things, enforcement things, etc., etc., they are not the meaningful way to fight piracy. The meaningful way to fight piracy is you need to give consumers legitimate options to get what they want.” -- Peter Chernin, president, News Corp. Aug. 4, 2008, interview with Charlie Rose Solutions

10. “ Maybe the solution isn't to escape the market, but to empower it. Modern computing offers unparalleled capacities to track and calculate. Imagine a vast menu of news and commentary offered to you ad-free for pennies per item, the charges micro-billed, added up and presented like a utility bill at month's end. -- Edward Wasserman, Washington & Lee Univ. Miami Herald column published Feb. 18, 2008 Solutions

11. “ Buffet muses out loud: ‘The ideal combination would be if The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and The Post had a joint web site, and you couldn’t get any one individually. That, you could sell for a fair amount of money, and it would have one hell of a readership.’ ’’ -- Warren Buffett, quoted in Fortune Magazine, July 26, 2007 / http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/08/06/100141340/ Solutions

12. “ What will happen next is that the audience will say: If you’re going to sell us to advertisers, then you’ve got to pay us. And that’s the long-term challenge that I think newspapers are going to be facing.” -- Paul Maidment, exec. Editor, Forbes Magazine Interviewed during “On the Media,” Feb. 25, 2005 http://www.onthemedia.org/yore/transcripts/trnascripts_022505_aboutface.html The value of one

25. Building Info Valet economy Thank-you! Sustaining news and information through a shared-user network http://www.informationvalet.org Bill Densmore [email_address] Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute November 3, 2008 573-882-9812