Spot.Us Would Love Your Input

[Digidave]

Hello all. I thought I'd open the floor to any input anyone might have on a venture I'm starting up called Spot Us. The site right now (at www.spot.us) should explain the idea.

It's similar to Kiva.org or DonorsChoose - with a vertical on reporting.

The site won't be up and functional for several months. But I wanted to see if anyone had any initial feedback about the idea. My goal is to make a marketplace that serves three communities: Readers (who can also act as funders), reporters, news organizations.

Anything you think I should keep in mind?

[Digidave]

David
You bring up fantastic issues. The main one being: "will people really pay for quality journalism."

I wish I had charts and figures that categorically said: "yes, time and again people are willing to pay for the investigative story about their local politician."

But those stats don't exist (at least, not to my knowledge).

But this is low-hanging fruit that has never been picked. Might turn out there is not enough of that low-hanging fruit - but SOME is there.

The way I picture it: Average donation will be $20-$25

Multiply that by $70 or more (maybe with a few outliers giving $50 or more) and you are starting to make some money. Maybe not enough to pay the mortgage and college tuition - but if you have several pitches in at any time - perhaps a descent living.

The tough part is going to be finding a pitch that touches people enough: Stories about their kids schools, their local hospital, health issues, environmental degradation, etc - it has to be a story that directly impacts somebodies life.

But - as you noted Dave - this is no magic wand/silver bullet. But it is an honest and nonprofit attempt at trying something new.

Thanks for your support!
David

[Brad King]

I think those charts may exist with PBS an NPR. I would imagine looking at the business model for public media would be a good place to start as you put together a model. It would give you a great idea of where and how to make publicly supported -- and that means the public and public foundations -- journalism work.

I would also look at Programming Bids, where people bid and buy services for projects that need to get done.

I don't know if I was sold initially on the idea, but I do see some promise in it the more we kick this around. There are some hurdles, but every great idea has opportunities to create new features.

David, are you here local? I'd love to get together with you -- and maybe bring Joe in as well since I'm working on his start up (I am weirdly feeling like a venture capitalist who invested in companies and is now trying to get them to work together).

I think a sit down for a couple hours would yield some very interesting -- and practical ideas.

And anyone else in the Cincinnati area would be welcome -- and for those who are geo-located somewhere else, maybe we could set up an open Skype line.

Interested David?

[Digidave]

I'm happy to discuss any and all ideas.

If by local you mean SF Bay Area, then yes. I was under the impression that you were on the east coast Brad.

Am I wrong?

[Brad King]

Oh, you are in SF -- haha, I thought you were Cincinnati local. Whoops. I guess we'll have to meetup when I make it back to Berkeley next time.

[lalorek]

Hi David,

The problem I see with www.spot.us is that people today simply are not paying for news. If they do pay, they do not pay enough. They have no idea what it costs to produce original news stories. That's the problem journalists face.

As Google.com has taken off, it's sucks a lot of free content from Mainstream Media and bloggers, but it doesn't pay for it.

So now you've got a model in which regular people are going to pony up for news. The problem is that people are not paying 50 cents for a newspaper that has as much content as a novel every day.

So who is going to pay for content? Advertisers. So if I own a bike shop and I ask you to write a feature about it is that news or advertising? The blurring of the lines will dillute the credibility of journalists if we are perceived as people who are bought and paid for to write content.

I would suggest you get some big buck backers like Pro Publica did so that the content your reporters produce remains free of conflict.

I've been a reporter for 20 years and I make a decent salary with benefits and I write stories (so far) that are not influenced by advertisers. But I don't see any models emerging that would match my salary and maintain my credibility. That's what I would like to see from the new journalism world. I would like to see reporters paid a decent salary to write news. We are professionals and we should be treated as such.

Good luck with Spot.us. I'll be watching and hoping for you to succeed.

[Brad King]

You don't see any new models that match your salary and benefits?

I can tell you that the first job I got at a news organization -- online -- was more than double the salary of a newspaper reporter and my second job was building, producing and running an online, daily news operation which we built -- profitably -- from the ground up, where my salary was much higher than the first job.

It's not only possible to make money online -- I would say it's easier...

The business model isn't the problem. There are dozens of profitable online models...

Is this the model? I don't know. But it's certainly an interesting try...

Can you tell us what Pro Publica is (yes, we can all Google it :) I've not heard of it.

[lalorek]

Hi Brad,

Journalism has always been an apprentice job throughout history. If you read early tales about Woodward and Bernstein you will see that they had to wash carbon copies out at the Washington Post. It's that kind of in the trenches paying your dues that has made journalism a tough profession for many people to endure. Believe me, it has to be a passion, otherwise most people bail out for law school or an MBA.

Here's the link to http://www.propublica.org/ It's backed by the Sandlers who owned Wachovia Savings and Loan. They sold it and sunk millions into creating an independent investigative news organization based in New York. They are hiring top notch investigative reporters from some of the biggest publications like LA Times, Washington Post, New York Times and Wall Street Journal. They pay them (I would imagine) six figure salaries to investigate corporations, government agencies and more and to write stories. They will probably win more Pulitzers in coming years than traditional news organizations. That's because they have deep pockets and they focus on doing the right work without outside influence.

A friend of mine left the LA Times recently to go to work there. I would like to see that kind of model spread to places like San Antonio, Texas where I live and work. That's amazing journalism at its finest and it gives veterans like myself hope for the future.

As a technology reporter, I know there's a lot of money in online work. I've chronicled the commercial development of the Internet and I've worked for a failed magazine that followed the dot com boom. I got paid handsomely for that work. The problem is that to do substantial "meaty" journalism the money is simply not there.

[Brad King]

I have always taken exception to "meaty" journalism. John and I covered international treaties, organizations, legal wranglings and the like that -- by the way -- effect the largest export the US has: IP.

This is an argument for another day. (and, btw, my friends have produced extremely meaty journalism for Frontline. The money was there for them.)

The fact that many journalists have no idea how to do business as well doesn't make mean it can't be done -- or even that it's hard. Simply that when you turn the business reigns over to business people, they run it like a business.

Journalists have largely gotten themselves into this mess.

AND..Pro Publica sounds neat. how is that different than say other public media? Or is this an offshoot of that (I'm tooling around on the site now)...

To bring it back to David: where do you think it's best for him to look for partners. Someone like Mark Cuban -- or an organization?

[Digidave]

I like Pro-publica. Actually, the editor-in-chief if Pro-P is on the board of directors at Knight, so he knows and supports Spot.Us.

The problem with Pro-Publica: It's supported by the Sandler family. If they have a right to donate $25 million - then the Smith family has a right to donate $25. There just isn't a mechanism right now that lets them.

[Brad King]

This may seem a bit out of left field, but I'd think about talking with Joe Trippi, who helped put together Dean's fund raising campaign using digital tools.

His architecture is why Obama is winning the campaign -- and why, as I read today, the FEC can't process his spreadsheets because too many people have given too much money. They are in the process of upgrading their systems to handle the sheer volume of people contributing.

He may have some idea of how to create this to scale.

[Digidave]

It's very much based on the Dean campaigns approach to fundraising.

I did my masters thesis on Drupal - which was the digital tool that powered Dean's grassroots campaign.

As for talking to Trippi. I'm sure he has better things to do - although I am friends with (and tapping the brains of) old Dean campaigners.

[Brad King]

When I've talked with him, I've found him to be very much interested in this type of thing. Lessig as well.