lessons learned from spot.us
DESCRIPTION
Some of the lessons we've learned from Spot.Us since its launch 8 months ago.TRANSCRIPT
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Spot.Us Lessons in Community Funded Reporting
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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
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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.
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The Theory of Donating•People donate to NPR. How is
Spot.Us Different?
Throwing money over a wall
vs......
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Transparency and Control
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Donating is Social
Every pitch is a campaign.
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What Pitches Work?•Stories with relevance. Anchored in
a geographic/ethnic community or question.
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Editorial Lessons
•Freelancers benefit from editorial oversight.
•Volunteer editors work better than low paid editors.
•Beat pitches, data pitches and more.
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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.
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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.