The PressPass entity would merely need to individually negotiate exclusive content arrangements with individual newspapers. To prevent the first-mover-takes-a-bath problem, there is a clause in the contract stating that the effective date does not take place until 30 days after X number of newspapers sign exclusive agreements.

The real problem with the Rauch proposal is that this will fall flat on its face as a business model. With the exception of some small papers, no one is going to want to do it: they’ve invested too much money into their web sites to want to surrender control, and the eventual hold-outs think that they’ll be able to take on PressPass by themselves and gain market share to boot, a not implausible position to take if they’re the New York Times or Washington Post. Witness the failure of the Times model, and the WSJ has realized that its opinion journalism is much more valuable in front of the subscription curtain. So it would only work if newspapers were required to join PressPass through some sort of government coercion. Which seems like a bad idea.