We should not underestimate the power of philanthropy.

"Voluntary paywall to blogs" is one of my Top 10 Media Innovation Ideas. I'm publishing one media innovation each day during the ten first days of October.

This idea was actually sent to uutisraivaaja competition by us a year ago, but it didn't go forward then.

Someone is going to make a successful product for hardcore blogging community to make and receive donations. Many have tried: there are many concepts like this, but I haven't seen any of them to really succeed.

Donations in blogs don't really work these days. They require too much from the user to give very little. The system should be built differently. What if instead of "pay me a cup of coffee" buttons, blogs would ask for a monthly 5 euro donation for all the blogs to be shared.

The core idea is to provide a platform where readers pay a monthly donation, which is then shared to the blogs they read based on the time spent on each site. Scoopinion data could be used to guarantee rightful division of the money.

Marketing the idea to blogs is fairly easy (want money? sign up!) but requires a lot of footwork. If blogs advertise the idea, the community might be formed through that.