Thanks for this post, and I look forward to this team’s work.

For some time now, I have felt and expressed (most recently, see http://smallinitiatives.com/blog/jay-small/2009/07/08/innovation-at-newspapers-what-direction) that the businesses that will pay for journalism in the future will have progressively less to do with adjacency to and distribution with journalistic products.

In other words, a business entity that wants to practice journalism in any form does so as a public service (or for any other abstract mission you can imagine), but runs mostly unrelated businesses that pay for it.

The activities cross only when the practice of journalism helps establish a brand reputation that can have a positive influence on the business(es), or when the business(es) can derive some operational efficiency from the existence of a journalism organization. All, of course, within whatever ethical and practical guidelines the business establishes for its journalism.

In all, journalism might still create advertising adjacencies or paid content opportunities that help sustain it. I guess, though, that it will soon require other ways to make a buck.

As with most things, I only sense this to be true, but I am not adamant about it. I’d be curious to hear the project team’s thoughts.

Thanks and best regards,
Jay Small