Gather round, gather round for this month’s Carnival of Journalism, which addresses the timely question of ‘How do you financially support journalism online?’. I’ll be updating this post as the carnival performers put on their outsized business heads and add their peacock-like contributions.

• First up in the parade is the glamorously ruffled Dave Cohn, who addresses the merits of community funded journalism with his post;
• Following him is the dame Jack Lail, who notes how the rules for staffing levels are changing – and that while there are rules of thumb for print operations, no one seems to have worked out what the economics are when you publish online-only.
• While the rainbow-coloured Charlie Beckett points out Frederick Filou‘s reasons why 2009 could be a good year for the news media.
• The resplendent Wendy Withers offers the following advice to both freelancers and news organisations: diversify
• Ryan Sholin, wearing the feathers of Invisible Inkling, comes up with 3 obvious ways to support online journalism;
• and the masked Bryan Murley points out that “there are no new business models for news … The only possible models are these: advertiser-supported and reader-supported (through subscriptions or donations).” The key, he says, is to get out of the neglect that has brought news organisations to this point in the first place.

• Jason_Cobb @paulbradshaw No established model can work. Which is the beauty of it all. Time to start again at grass roots with info as base, not profit
  
• nmcintosh @paulbradshaw Advertising. Subscription. Not charity. Revenue’s not the problem
• Paul0Evans1 @paulbradshaw Recognise that it’s not *that* expensive to publicly subsidise & the mood on this stuff is changing http://tinyurl.com/8yymcs
• BostinBloke @paulbradshaw advertising….premium subsciption service…membership discounts
• matthewbennett @paulbradshaw Subscribe to an individual journalist: top quality individual journalist blogs with premium content section
• benkunz @paulbradshaw Business model for journalism: Turn 1 major city paper in each U.S. region into a nonprofit. Done.
• NigelBarlow @paulbradshaw I still think that there is a case for puuting a paywall around quality content
• wcochran @paulbradshaw: Subscribers have to take a bigger share of cost. Good news: online news costs less.

I’ve also started a video conversation on Seesmic on the subject – embedded below – on which I’d welcome your thoughts.