Online Journalism: Donations Accepted

Amid traditional media's bloodletting, nonprofit news outfits like Spot.Us are experimenting with community-funded journalism on the Web

By Douglas MacMillan

The news business is in disarray. Thousands of journalists have been left jobless by deep cuts at Time (TWX), Gannett (GCI), Viacom (VIA), and other large media properties. Small newspapers and trade publications around the country are shutting down operations, and many that survive have eliminated bureaus, reduced printing schedules, or cut their print edition entirely.

Most publishers have followed the advertising dollars to the Web, only to find revenues from online ads growing too slowly to offset declines in print ads. So, if online advertising can't save the media any time soon, what will? A growing number of entrepreneurs and journalism advocates around the country are experimenting with a new type of business model for news: community-funded online journalism.

Organized around a group of readers bound by location or an area of interest, these new Web sites solicit donations to pay for the work of professional journalists. While the collection plate is small, and in most cases the sites are relying on supplemental funding from advertising, grants, or other institutional donations, their founders say that readers who help underwrite the news become engaged in the process of reporting and storytelling in meaningful ways.

Giving Donors a Say

There's little sign community-centric models are intriguing mainstream media outlets, but if some of them do prove successful, perhaps they will be gradually introduced into a business that's already reliant on advertising. They could be seen as new sources of revenue and community engagement. "Much of the discussion in journalism has been looking to replace one model with one model," says Jeff Jarvis, associate professor and director of the interactive journalism program at the City University of New York's Graduate School of Journalism. "It's not going to be that simple. It's going to be a bunch of slices making up one pie."

To be sure, publicly funded news is not a novel concept in the U.S. Both the Public Broadcasting System and National Public Radio rely on audience support. But they also collect sizeable donations from the government-backed nonprofit Corporation for Public Broadcasting. And while PBS, NPR, and their numerous local affiliates have established reputations for quality, investigative journalism, they typically don't offer donors a hand in the process, as many of the new sites do. "I think this is about the public's desire to play a larger role in news and journalism," Jarvis says.

For starters, how about letting readers handpick the stories they want produced? That's the model being pioneered by Spot.Us, a San Francisco-based community news site launched in October. On the site, freelance journalists pitch stories to readers, rather than editors, and set their own commission. If readers like the idea, they pitch in a small amount—usually about $30—towards the total cost, which might be as high as $2,500. If enough readers chip in, the story gets produced and posted to the site for anyone to read. "The Internet helps people find each other and aggregate around a story they love," says David Cohn, who launched Spot.Us with the help of a two-year, $340,000 grant from the Knight Foundation he received in May.