Some journalists get uncomfortable with the transparency they want from everyone else

Journalists fight for openness in government, business, universities, religious institutions and pretty much everyone we cover. But transparency for us? Not so fast.

I hope no one was walking by my office when I was reading Paul Bradshaw’s post at Poynter Online, about a journalist who interviewed him by email, then denied him permission to post the exchange online. I’m sure my mouth was agape, stunned at the journalist’s nerve and cluelessness.

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ViewPass has potential for data, revenue

I don’t want to belabor my opposition to paid content or to the secrecy of last week’s meeting of newspaper executives.

But the secrecy and the resulting attention to the heavy paid-content focus of the meeting kept us from learning until a week later about Alan Mutter’s interesting presentation about ViewPass, a plan for a system that would allow easy payment by consumers across multiple platforms and extensive collection of data that would allow publishers to target advertising based on that visitor’s interests.

Mutter proposes ViewPass as a way to “access valuable content on the websites and mobile platforms of all participating publishers.” While I have concerns about all paid-content approaches (I made the Freudian typo “pain-content” in a tweet last night), and about the industry’s unhealthy focus on such a misguided approach, I concede that charging for high-value content might work in some niches.

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