lessons learned from spot.us

Spot.Us Lessons in Community Funded Reporting

Spot.Us

Organizes a marketplace

Community

News OrganizationsCan invest in future content

Can create story ideas.

ReportersPitch the public

• Anyone can create a story tip.

• Groups form to ‘pledge’ resources.

• Reporters write a contract for hire (a pitch).

• Groups form to ‘donate’ resources.

• Matches Peer Review editor or news organization.

• Can ‘give back‘ to Spot.Us members getting rights to content.

• Quality content for lower price.

• Licensed under CC if nobody buys exclusivity - owned by all.

How Spot.Us Works

My personal experience

• Startups should be called rampups

• Collaborations are key, but are also a delicate art.

• Remain agile and iterative

Organization formed one year ago. Site launched eight months ago.

The Theory of Donating•People donate to NPR. How is

Spot.Us Different?

Throwing money over a wall

vs......

Transparency and Control

Donating is Social

Every pitch is a campaign.

What Pitches Work?•Stories with relevance. Anchored in

a geographic/ethnic community or question.

Editorial Lessons

•Freelancers benefit from editorial oversight.

•Volunteer editors work better than low paid editors.

•Beat pitches, data pitches and more.

Difficulties•Partnerships take time.

•Transparency is the new objectivity. But not for everyone.

•Editorial workflow.

•Starting up any organization: Legal, biz/dev, and fun with numbers.

What does this represent?• A new transparency and collaboration in journalism.

I’m here to see how far the rabbit hole goes and report back to the larger journalism

community.