We are really pleased that the Miami Herald has taken a leadership role by news sites in experimenting with new business models for journalism. We are thrilled that the Miami Herald now embraces voluntary contributions, although of course we are disappointed that they did not choose Kachingle as their platform — they built their own homegrown system.

At Kachingle we believe the most difficult hurdle will be getting users to sign-up…removing barriers and “mental transaction costs” for users is key to success.  Unfortunately, the Miami Herald implementation has quite a few hoops that contributors have to jump thru in order to make a donation.

For more opinions on their system, check out the articles below, and of course, visit the Miami Herald and try it directly (note: the donation request is at the END of each article):

• Hard-Up Miami Herald Virtually Begs for Charity Micropayments, Fast Company Magazine

• MiamiHerald.com asks for donations (too subtly), SteveOuting.com

• Miami Herald Asks Readers For Donations, Huffington Post