Micro-Fund Trial Gets $3K In First Month

More than $3,000 (£2,025) has been raised in the first month of a “community-funding” project by news site MinnPost.

The non-profit news provider is conducting a micro-sponsorship experiment to see how many visitors to its most popular blog will make a small donation to fund it.

So far, David Brauer’s BrauBlog has attracted one-off payments of $10 and $25 from over 150 people.



The total (up to $10,000 within 3 months) will be matched by the Harnisch Foundation, which means over ($6,000) has been raised at present.

According to the Nieman Journalism Lab, the site’s micro-sponsorship donations “won’t bowl anyone over, but they could point toward a long-term fundraising model for non-profit news organisations that generally depend on large grants from foundations”.

In a blog post launching the project, MinnPost editor Joel Kramer explained the experimental nature of his latest venture.

“One of the ideas floating around for financing journalism is ‘community-funding’ - getting lots of people to donate small amounts to support a writer, a beat, or a specific story project they are interested in.

“So we’ve decided to try this concept out with BrauBlog, since it’s our most popular feature on MinnPost, other than the home page itself.

“This is an experiment. If it works, we’ll brag about it all over the country, and pay some of our bills, too.”

Kramer also said that the micro-sponsorship model would be expanded to one of the MinnPost beat blogs if this trial proves successful.

The Power Of Networks

Here’s an interesting slideshow about the impact of digital networking upon the ways we communicate in the modern era.

It’s taken from a presentation recently given by David Armano, the vice president of Experience Design at Critical Mass and a new media blogger.

The Micro-Sociology of Networks considers social media and networking, participatory journalism, blogging, and branding among many other aspects of the digital age.

The Micro-Sociology of Networks

View more presentations from David Armano.

[HT – cybersoc.com]

Nonprofit Future For Watchdog Journalism?

Could the future of investigative journalism be Web-only stories produced by nonprofit independent outfits?

That’s the issue discussed in a recent New York Times article that chronicles the rise of small not-for-profit news groups which are popping up in some of America’s big cities.

According to the NYT, these operations dedicate themselves to investigating local issues and are funded by grants, donations both big and small, and the odd bit of advertising.

The Times points out that these corporations resemble public service broadcasters in their financial structures but are usually managed and staffed by unemployed refugees from the print media world.

And it’s a perceived gap in investigative reporting from traditional news sources that is driving the growth of these nonprofit watchdog websites.

One such example cited by the NYT is the VoiceofSanDiego.org, which was part-founded by retired local entrepreneur Buzz Woolley when he became frustrated at the lack of coverage of corruption among the city’s public figures.

Woolley said: “Information is now a public service as much as it’s a commodity.”

“It should be thought of the same way as education, health care. It’s one of the things you need to operate a civil society, and the market isn’t doing it very well.”

And the online newspaper makes its position clear in its mission statement: “To consistently deliver ground-breaking investigative journalism for the San Diego region.

“To increase civic participation by giving citizens the knowledge and in-depth analysis necessary to become advocates for good government and social progress.”

Visit the NYT to see the full article.

Crowdfunding: Future Business Model?

Can crowdfunding become a viable way for mainstream media to support their services?

That’s the question posed by Mark Glaser in a recent MediaShift blog post, and as part of the discussion he looks at some examples of the crowdfunding theory being put into practice.

First up, a definition of crowdfunding from Glaser: “Getting micro-donations through the Internet to help fund a venture.”

He points to a couple of hyperlocal crowdfunding projects which are getting underway in the US.

Representative Journalism is the brainchild of academic Leonard Witt from the Kennesaw State University in Georgia.

The idea behind the initiative is to raise a series of donations from residents in a small town in order to pay for a journalist to be based there full time.

Witt told MediaShift: “So we have to work on three fronts: 1) we have to provide high quality journalism; 2) we have to get the community to know our journalist; and 3) the community has to feel that their membership in the community and the news and information it produces has value worthy of their financial support.”

Glaser also spoke to Spot.us founder Dave Cohn about the potential of crowdfunding as a source of funding for traditional media.

He said: “Community-funded journalism relies on two basic shifts. First, the audience has to think of journalism as a public good like art that’s worth sustaining with their own money.

“The second shift is with reporters who have to realise they are a personal brand and they can pitch the public.”

Based in the San Francisco Bay area, Spot.us encourages the public to offer tips for stories they want to see investigated and these projects are then funded by micro donations.

As well as these community crowdfunding efforts, Glaser looks at individual projects where bloggers have covered their costs through donations from readers.

For example, Chris Allbritton funded his Back to Iraq blog with public donations and satirical political blogger Ana Marie Cox was able to cover the second half of John McCain’s election campaign thanks to money given to her by readers.

Visit MediaShift for the full post.

[Picture - Jimmy McDonald on Flickr.]