Jta-event

This is the temporary home page for the Journalism Trust Association. Please bookmark and return to http://www.journalismtrust.org after April 27, 2009, when more details of the JTA will become public.

A chance to stand up

In a story about the Project on Excellence in Journalism's 2009 "State of the News Media" report, Time Magazine's M.J. Stephey concluded March 16: " . . . [I]f solutions aren't obvious, the report's overall message is: Will the future leaders of journalism please, please stand up?"

A new collaboration -- the Journalism Trust Association

The mission of the Journalism Trust Association is to help sustain, update and enrich the values and purposes of journalism through collaboration with news media, the public and public-focused institutions.

JTA will coordinate the creation of the Information Valet Service, an online ecosystem to re-invent the value newspapers provide to their communities by transforming how content is acquired and exchanged and enabling readers and advertisers to interact on a private, one-to-one basis. By helping newspapers, and other media outlets, turn themselves into vibrant, real-time, always-on 'social networks', the JTA hopes the InfoValet Service will usher in a new era of relevance and prosperity for content providers.

The initial form is likely to be a news-based social network, strongly relevant content, absolute control for users over their demographic and financial data, and a means to share, sell and buy content from multiple sources with a single account. The network will support news content creators by delivering high-value commercial content to end users; and will enable a two-way flow of payments or reward points in consumer accounts.

PRIVACY . . . ADVERTISING . . . COMMERCE . . . PERSONALIZATION

OTHER LINKS/COMMENT . . . ABOUT THE NEW(S)SOCIAL NETWORK . . . INFORMATION VALET PROJECT BLOG . . . . RSS FEED

TAGGED PHOTOS

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RJI PICTURED

THE RJI VISION

The vision: New revenues for news

To earn new revenue, news organizations need to quickly migrate their historic role as the most-trusted source of information from the product-oriented print world to a service-oriented digital “ecosystem.” The Information Valet Project at the Reynolds Journalism Institute is organizing an information-industry collaborative to build, own and operate a shared-user network layered upon the basic Internet. The IVP network will:

• ADVERTISING -- Advance the role, effectiveness of, and compensation for online advertising and marketing services via the ability to deliver targeted, interest-based advertising to individual, known consumers.
• PRIVACY -- Allow end users to own, protect — and optionally benefit by sharing — their demographic and usage data, with the help of their competitively chosen “information valet” – such as their local newspaper.
• SOCIAL NETWORK -- Provide a platform for customizing, sharing and personalizing the end-user web experience – a “news social network" with one ID, one passworld, one account and one bill.
• TRANSACTION -- Allow online users to easily share, sell and buy content through multiple websites with one bill, one account, one ID and password which work at a plurality of participating websites.

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• HEAR OR READ A Q&A EXPLAINING THE INFOVALET VISION
• WATCH A 20-MINUTE PRESENTATION taped March 23 at Washington Univ., St. Louis
• LISTEN TO A SIX-MINUTE PRESENTATION
• VIEW A 12-FROM SLIDE SHOW
• DOWNLOAD A POWERPOWER PRESENTATION

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“We’ll start creating frameworks in law, governance, marketing, advertising, technology, user identity and transactions for the Information Valet Economy,” says Bill Densmore, IVP project researcher. “It should be a place where companies compete to provide personalized service to users, yet share those users, and where they make money referring those users to content — and advertising — from almost anywhere.”

The origins: "Blueprinting the Information Valet economy:
Dec. 3-5, 2009, Columbia, Mo.

• More than 50 editors, writers, technologists, publishers, entrepreneurs, academics, researchers and students gathered Dec. 3-5, 2008 at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism. Their pre-arranged mission: invent a new way to sustain the role of journalism in participatory democracy. Their approach: Create a shared-user web network for demographic privacy management, advertising and information commerce.

Where we're starting

What is the Information Valet Project?

• A one-page description of the Information Valet Project at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism. (HTML) . . . PDF DOWNLOAD (two pages)

Why is the InfoValet Service needed?

WHY IS 'BLUEPRINT THE IVP' NEEDED? (SHORT VIDEO) . . . ALL VIDEO ARCHIVES
The U.S. news industry struggles as print advertising moves elsewhere and web advertising's double-digit growth sputters. The industry can now rethink and relaunch its relationship with 50 million customers -- to become their "information valet" able to make money whether those users are buying services, information (including music and entertainment) or being paid for web seeking and contact with sponsored messages and advertising.

• Consumers want a customized experience, but want to control and be compensated for use of demographic and usage profiles.
• The Internet needs a user-focused system for sharing identity, exchanging and settling value (including payments), for digital information. The system should allow multiple "Information Valets" to compete for and serve customers with varied topical interests and appetites for demographic sharing. It needs a New(s) Social Network.
  
  

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VIEW PROGRAM / SCHEDULE

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For more information email Bill Densmore, 2008-2009 Reynolds Fellow, or call 573-882-9812 for more information.