This story seems relevant to our project:
href="http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070730073936.n84arl87&show_article=1">http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=070730073936.n84arl87&show_article=1
I found this passage to be pretty interesting:
"Uses for the money will include ways to reward people that upload stories or images, and developing a system to "geo-locate" contributors so they can be found if they are in range of developments deemed newsworthy.
"We are moving to geo-locating people so we can do some cool stuff," Brody said.
"For example, if there is a bomb in a subway station in London or a virus breaks out in Google's cafeteria and media can't get their fast enough we can identify people on the scene already and get their content," Brody said.
Contributors own stories they post on NowPublic, which does not pay for submissions.
"This is really going to help us start compensating those folks," said Brody."
So, in essence, wouldn't the natural evolution of this make NowPublic a brand of "normal" media, in which journalists are paid to cover certain geographies or topics? It kind of seems like what some traditional media outlets, like CNN.com, etc., are trying to do, just coming at it from the other direction, with the same ultimate goal in mind.