This is Crowdsourcing Mornings! This post takes place every weekday morning and highlights one crowdsourcing project I liked from Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or other crowdsourcing websites.
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The Save Journalism Project is a non-profit advocacy organization that launched in June with the mission to raise awareness about the existential threat the journalism industry faces from the tech giants. Much important work has been done to focus attention on attacks on the free press. But the economic sustainability of the journalism industry has received far less coverage, even though the business model of news publishers has been destroyed by Google and Facebook’s domination of the digital advertising marketplace and control over web traffic.
We are launching our Freelance Reporting Initiative to raise funds to hire laid off reporters to write freelance stories highlighting the challenges posed to the journalism industry by the tech giants. The first two stories that we intend to commission will focus on how communities are being affected by the loss of news outlets and how Google and Facebook have come to dominate the digital advertising market so comprehensively. We will commission journalists to report these stories, but we will not know in advance which outlet will accept the story. We will be working with our extensive contacts in the journalism industry to get these stories placed and have high confidence that we will succeed.
The first story will explore in depth the problem of “news deserts.” Local news outlets are central parts of American communities. Without them, we may never uncover crises like the Flint water supply, or expose sexual predators like Jerry Sandusky and Larry Nassar. More than 1,300 communities across the United States have lost their local paper in the last fifteen years. Those that remain are often operating with a much smaller newsroom and possibly even publishing fewer editions because they cannot monetize their content online.
The second story will track the explosive growth of the digital advertising “Duoploy” of Google and Facebook, who together combine to gobble up nearly two-thirds of all digital advertising revenue. Just a decade ago, news publishers made more in advertising revenue that Google and Facebook put together. Now, the Duopoly make more than eight times what all news publishers earn from advertising. Simply put, Google and Facebook have a death grip on the journalism industry.
As of November 13th, this project has raised $6,200 of their $10,000 goal. This project has 2 days left to raise the $10,000 or it will not be funded. For a pledge of $1, you will get project updates. For a pledge of $10, you will get one button. To learn more and to pledge money, go to: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/savejournalism/the-save-journalism-project-freelance-reporting-initiative?
Categories: Crowdsourcing Mornings Stuff
