This site was launched yesterday. It's a bit wobbly, but seems a great idea
http://uncoverage.com http://uncoverage.com/stories/filter/popular UNCOVERAGE The news is broken. Let's fix it. Investigative journalism - the immune system of a functioning democracy - is broken. Today, the news isnt working for us. It's working for advertising dollars. In a hyper-competitive advertising environment, the news is under intense pressure to create stories that will quickly and efficiently get attention from the public. This business model drowns out the kind of hard-hitting, deeply researched journalism that keeps us safe. Now, it's the more inexpensive content like opinion, news, celebrity, and syndicated stories. We have all seen what the result looks like: hundreds of journalists laid off; Miley Cyrus on the front page; and an overall steep decline in the balance of stories that uncover new information meant to help us, not just attract us. But it doesn't have to be this way. We believe that the public should be in control. Why shouldn't you be able to decide that investigations and stories need to happen on the issues that matter? Uncoverage is a platform designed to democratize patronage for investigative journalism. We are going to give the public a new and powerful voice by making it possible for them to fund the topics that matter, by the journalists on the front lines, without having to to be billionaires. We have already invested eight months and all our savings into this platform. Now, we need to raise the remaining funds to launch the platform's alpha. Uncoverage is a connector between journalists who believe in revealing new information in the public interest, and backers like you who can make investigations and stories happen. Journalists with proven track records will be vetted into the platform. Approved journalists will associate themselves with topics they believe in, and work with topic editors to craft pitches and stories for the site. Journalists may post their news pitches with relevant content, such as videos and photographs, plus their budget needed to deliver a completed story, and then YOU choose to back the journalists, pitches, and topics you want to see investigated and published. There is no paywall. Stories produced in the public interest should be available to everyone. The stories belong to the journalists, not to us. We are here to help make them happen. We will work closely with freelancers and nonprofit and some for-profit news organizations. The Center for Public Integrity is going to be a launch partner, and we cannot wait to start backing some of their investigations! Cheers, Stephen Message sent using MelbPC WebMail Server
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