"This is a $60 billion hit on American employers that their foreign competitors won't feel," said Carl Guardino, CEO of the business-oriented Silicon Valley Leadership Group, referring to one of the president's proposals.

"Reelchanges.org, a showcase created to raise production money online for filmmakers’ works in progress, has teamed up with Maryland Public Television (MPT) to test whether “crowdfunding” will work for public TV documentaries. With help from a Corporation for Public Broadcasting grant, MPT has fine-tuned its pitch for donations backing its documentary Intrepid Journal: From WWII to 9-11, about the not-so-smooth sailing of a World War II aircraft carrier that recently underwent a major restoration as a naval museum docked in Manhattan. Two additional MPT productions — on Chesapeake Bay water quality and on the military service of African-Americans — also will be featured on the site in a tryout backed last year with a $45,000 grant from CPB’s Public Media Innovation Fund. Working on the project with MPT are consultant Jim Russell, longtime top producer of public radio’s Marketplace, and the radio program’s original editor, Hal Plotkin, who founded ReelChanges.org last year."

In thinking about how to make the editorial model more "dynamic," Cohn circled around one idea: pitching to the public, rather than to publishers. "Traditionally .001 percent of the population gets to set the news agenda, and they were called editors. They were the ones with freelance budgets, they could hire people and tell them what was important to cover. "What I'm trying to do is increase the number of people who set the editorial agenda," Cohn says.

Spot.Us first solicits ideas for investigative stories, then uses an approach called "crowdfunding" to send a reporter out. "We distribute the cost of hiring a journalist across a lot of different people," says David Cohn, the 26-year-old founder of the not-for-profit firm. "Content will then be given away to local news organizations or sold for unique publishing rights to recoup the costs."... Opinions are divided on whether Spot.Us and its film documentary counterpart, Reelchanges, will invigorate public participation or merely undermine editorial instinct. Others worry that crowdfunding could skewer coverage to suit those with the most to spend. As a safeguard, both Spot and Reelchanges say they will ensure that no contributor gives more than 20% of a story's cost. Hal Plotkin, the founder of Reelchanges, notes that: "Our revenue is increasing whilst everybody else's is decreasing for the simple reason that we're going to our customers, asking them what they want and then asking them for a small amount to help create it. It's not rocket science - it's how every other business works." But, Plotnik [sigh] says bleakly: "The media is so full of authoritarians, they would rather go out of business than share power with a community at large that could help revive their economic model."