DigiDave - Journalism is a Process, Not a Product

Lessons in Web Development – Good, Fast and Cheap: Pick Two

2009-10-12T18:15:25Z

Whenever people ask me about the process of building a website, here’s how I explain their choices: “There is good, fast and cheap — you get to pick two.”

Spot.Us has quietly started development again. I’ll be putting up sketches of a much needed re-design on the Spot.Us blog soon, but you can see a sneak peek at the bottom of this post, courtesy of Lauren Rabaino. Looking back at what has almost been a full year of work, this is the part of building something from the ground up that plays to one of my strengths. It comes down to project management, weighing expectations with reality, and being able to make tough choices. In this post I will share a fundamental lesson you should keep in mind before building any website from scratch. Perhaps it’s also a “life lesson” that can be applied to engaging in any large scale project.

Back reading: other thoughts of mine related to building large scale projects or start-ups:

Today’s lesson: There is Good, Fast and Cheap — You Get to Pick Two.

Perhaps this “good, fast, and cheap” philosophy goes for all things in life. First, let’s define the options.

Good: Of high quality. Something that will last and perform as expected.
Fast: Something produced quickly. Below par.
Cheap: Something produced at low cost. Below par.

When building a start-up you get to choose two. Sometimes the choice is made for you (i.e. If you are bootstrapping).

The combinations.

Good and fast: Means the project is not cheap.
Fast and cheap: Means the project is not necessarily good.
Cheap and good: Means that it was most likely not fast.

Do these rules apply 100 percent of the time? Of course not. Nothing is 100 percent. But if I were a betting man, I’d predict the following outcomes for each scenario:

1. Good and fast: If you went for good and fast it most likely means you hired top notch folks. This is a boon to any website project starting out — but it also means you need to watch your cash flow because it won’t be cheap. Unless you are rolling in cash, the cost should be a concern. Still, going this route can save you money in the long run. If you are able to get something to market before you cut off development, you’ll be able to lean on what you’ve produced and it will work reliably. In contrast, I know plenty of projects that went with option number two…

2. Fast and cheap: If it works out then you’ve won the lottery. Again, I’m not saying quality is impossible here. But I personally know projects that went the fast and cheap route and in the long run it hurt them. What they ended up bringing to market failed. Most users are not as forgiving as they are to Twitter. If your site breaks, they won’t come back. It often takes an organization twice as much money and time to build a stable website if the initial site was built fast and cheap. If you are not a tech-minded person, you might wonder why everyone doesn’t outsource or go with the cheapest labor out there (and there are cheap developers on the market). To them I offer the following analogy: you could pay an Amish wood craftsman to build an heirloom cabinet that will last generations, or you can get something from Ikea that will last two to five years and require some assembly and maintenance on your part –but will cost a tenth of the price. There is no right or wrong answer. It often depends on where you are in life. When I was in college it was Ikea all the way, baby! In either case the trade-offs are apparent. That’s the difference between options number one and number two.

3. Good and cheap: The typical scenario here is that you have a great web developer (an Amish craftsman of code) who is ready to donate some of his/her time to your project. This is great. It means you can get quality at a cheap price. But this also usually means the development comes at a pace dictated by the volunteer, not you. Set all the deadlines you want in your mind — the reality is that you’re at their mercy. Again, this isn’t a bad thing. It’s just a trade-off. The good news is that when something does finally get put out, you’ll have quality and it won;t have broken the piggy bank. If you aren’t in a rush this can even be ideal (for example, maybe it’s something you are working on as a volunteer as well).

Final Thoughts

As always, these lessons aren’t prescriptive — they’re descriptive. I don’t think there is a right/wrong option to take. But it is important to know the trade-offs that you or your project manager are making. Journalism is becoming more entrepreneurial. “Entrepreneurial” itself is a buzzword that should be defined, but it either means journalists as innovators (entrepreneur as a person who is pushing boundaries), or journalists as self-employed (entrepreneur as small business owner). In either case, this lesson, which I call “pick two,” applies.

Now, as promised, below is a sneak peak at what a rough re design of Spot.Us. (It’s very rough — see the Spot.Us blog for details).

Video Roundup Cause I Can’t Sleep

2009-10-06T05:25:07Z

What do you do when you can’t sleep?

Clay Shirky on Internet Issues Facing Newspapers

Clay Shirky describes the changing news landscape that has put accountability journalism at risk, and outlines a “journalistic ecosystem” that is needed to preserve essential watchdog role.

Tina Brown On The Future Of Journalism

Tina Brown, founder of The Daily Beast, tells Katie Couric she expects a new golden age of journalism as the era of online media matures. Watch more at @KatieCouric on CBSNews.com.

Governor in ads promoting newspapers

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels is featured in a new marketing campaign for the state’s newspapers. It’s a reaction to the rise of the Internet and count the governor among those who worry about the…

How the Tape Recorder Killed Journalism

Gay Talese describes the deleterious effects that recording devices, hollowed expense accounts, and an emphasis on ‘indoor life’ have had on the writing process. http://bigthink.com/gaytalese

Internet Journalism

A classic narrated talk on how the web has changed journalism – complete with Matrix song in the background.

Comic relief.

The Social Media Guru

A funny video on social media experts.

Dear Warren Hellman

2009-09-26T00:25:57Z

Dear Warren

You already know the setup: Today the Bay Area media scene just gained an 800lb gorilla. The news broke last night by the Bay Guardian was known by some a little earlier and had been expected for months. Details from The New York Times and Paid Content. Steve Katz and Alan Mutter chime in as well.

Let me be the first blogger to tip my hat to you. Major kudos. There are a lot of folks with as much money as you – but they don’t give it back to their community the way you have. Nobody can argue that giving 5 million to start a nonprofit news organization is anything but classy. You rock!

A few months ago some of your consultants contacted me for advice. They reached out to many of my new media friends as well. Since my advice was solicited for two afternoons in that stage, I thought I’d continue and discuss the potentials that are ahead of you and the pitfalls that surround your path.

Starting from scratch: My understanding is that you are forming a new nonprofit. That’s fantastic. You want to treat this as a startup. You want little bureaucracy in the beginning. See notes on being agile and iterative. Launching a site and being iterative, Eliminating the fear of being open and iterative, growing a community and being iterative.

Build something new: You could very easily duplicate the SF Chronicle. We’d be a “two-paper” town again. But that would not accomplish anything in the long run. You’d have a failing business model. You’d be better off just donating 5 million to NPR, KQED or some other existing nonprofit and get it over with. I don’t think that’s what you want. You are bold. Imagine the SF Chronicle with an earnest citizen journalism effort to enhance their reporting. You can build that from the ground up. ProPublica had the wisdom to hire my friend and colleague Amanda Michel to tackle distributed reporting efforts. I suggest you do the same here on the West coast. Don’t be a flat news organization – by dynamic.

Hire new blood: The advice of old white men is great, but not as relevant as you might think. You want to make sure to be as diverse as the Bay Area itself in race, gender and age. Also: Hire people that think web first. Don’t just scoop up laid off newspaper reporters looking for a life line. So far, I think you are hiring a good and diverse core – keep it up!

If you do Fundraising: From what I understand you are going to do community fundraising. Hey, I know all about that space. If you ever want to do community funded reporting for projects – consider Spot.Us an ally (we will do it for you). If you are a closed organization, (which would be a pity – see advice below), you can go ahead and steal our code. You’ll get more kudos for thinking out of the box. The idea is that you should give transparency and control to the community about where their money goes. Not everyone has a spare 5 million. I have friends that might spare $5-$50 depending on what mood you catch them in – but they expect some control and transparency about that money.

Ignore the haters: There will be some. We aren’t all perfect, so keep an open ear and let them guide you – but don’t take it personal. The news consumer is always right, but you have to develop a thick skin.

Don’t be predatory: These are murky waters so I’ll be blunt and say what I think is on other people’s minds. A lot of smaller news organizations that have been doing good work feel a bit overlooked or stepped on. Many were contacted by your consultants and we shared our thoughts/ideas/ time receiving little or no reciprocity. I hope that is merely because there are no action items yet. In brief conversation with folks inside your now growing organization they spoke my language of “collaboration.” After all, the project is called “Bay Area News Project” and that sounds very welcoming and collaborative, almost like a coop. I tend to give the benefit of the doubt, so the only thing going against the consultants running the show is that they are outsiders to a tight knit media community. But we have open arms to anyone that reciprocates. I’m looking forward to giving the Bay Area News Project a big hug. I have detailed thoughts on news collaborations and more to share. I say this definitively: It is the future of journalism.

Bring folks together: There is a growing grassroots media movement here in the Bay Area. Your organization could be the spark that brings us all together or the police siren that sends everyone scattering. Being the first would be a boon to your organization and the entire Bay. You have some reaching out to do.

Finally, Warren – If you are feeling generous to the media scene – why not donate $20 to a Bay Area investigation of your choice? We will even match your donation to this pitch.

Spot.Us Expands to L.A. with Annenberg and a 10-month State of the Spot

2009-09-22T05:14:29Z

First: The big news.

Spot.Us is expanding to Los Angeles and we are doing so with USC’s Annenberg School of Journalism. Needless to say, we are very excited about the opportunities and possibilities. The main Spot.Us homepage will aggregate pitches from both the SF Bay Area and Los Angeles regions. You can go to Subdomains to find pitches specific to those regions: la.spot.us and sfbay.spot.us.

As many know, I grew up in Los Angeles (Hamilton High School anyone?) so this is a bit of a home coming for me. I will remain up north running the Bay Area Spot.Us – but will be working closely with folks in Los Angeles building up our SoCal presence.

What Does This Mean?

We will continue to move forward. If the Los Angeles launch goes smooth there is no reason we couldn’t expand to another city soon. This can be done in partnership with another organization (media company, university, etc) or just by Spot.Us itself.

It has been 10-months since Spot.Us officially launched with support from the Knight Foundation (who remain fantastic supporters). There have been a few highlights in the Spot.Us world.

I first announced that I was working on Spot.Us (winning a Knight News Challenge my advice on that here) . The site launched five months later.
Six month “state of the spot” after our official launch – including a list of some thing’s we’d been up to
Spot.Us starts to build a strategic business plan (as a community). – We will have another one of these open brainstorm meetings soon!

We have been observing and learning along the way. Without a doubt the concept holds. In fact, we’ve been joined now by other community funded reporting sites (Global For Me, PayyAttention, KickStarter, ReelChanges and others). But only Spot.Us focuses on local, long form reporting. To my knowledge we are also the only one that is situated to work with multiple news organizations at a time to collaborate publicly with citizens or each other.

As such – that is what you can expect more of from Spot.Us: Focusing on our strengths, providing services to news organizations that want to participate, creating a new marketplace for freelancers to sell their work to the public or organizations and for community members to take control and set the news agenda themselves.

Agile and Iterative Development Begins Again

Long time Spot.Us community members will know I am a big believer in agile and iterative development.

Unfortunately – we’ve strayed from this mission for the last 4-6 months. But it isn’t for lack of want – more like lack of funds

I am happy to announce that we have new developers at Spot.Us who will be working closely with me to take the site to its full 2.0 vision. I want to thank Hashrocket for the development on the site so far. They are, hands down, a FANTASTIC shop to work with. I would recommend them to anyone looking for Ruby on Rails work in a heartbeat and I hope to work with them again soon. I consider them not just colleagues but friends.

But for the immediate future I am excited to be working with two developers (they’ll be introduced soon) who will work on the day-to-day of the site, getting it in a position for what we need to do.

What We Need To Do

SO MUCH!

There is a list of site development needs (feel free to add, please don’t delete). This includes some redesign and some needed features.
There are incredibly ambitious projects to support – pick your favorite. Donating just $10 can make a HUGE difference.
Define what Spot.Us is and what Spot.Us isn’t: a higher level conversation that we will be having with advisors and the community.
Figuring out the three sided market: Community members, reporters and news organizations. We are a service organization for all three. But three sided markets are tough to pin down. I am convinced it can be done.

Personal Thought and Rant

Along with the press release I get to write this blog post and it would be a missed opportunity not to reflect on the last 1.5 years of my life and the last 10 months since Spot.Us officially launched. I am more dedicated than ever towards the concept of “community funded reporting” and Spot.Us as a tool to accomplish that. I do believe it will be a part of journalism’s future no matter what name we call it.

But I have also come to realize that there is no silver bullet. Journalism needs multiple revenue streams. That is also why I believe “content is King, collaboration is Queen.” It isn’t an either/or scenario with citizen journalism and I’ve spent hours upon hours thinking about what these terms all mean. In the attempt to zen out on all this I’ve learned from many people. I want to thank them all and I want to thank everyone that has been a positive influence on me and Spot.Us so far. In truth Spot.Us belongs to everyone that participates in it. So if you think we are doing okay – give yourself a pat on the back. You are making it happen, I’m just a conduit.

Public Media Collaborative Event: Social Media for Social Action and East Bay Blogger Camp

2009-09-17T06:15:25Z

There is something brewing in the Bay Area.

Public Media Collaborative.

What has grown out of a dinner with some social media friends has turned into an adhoc service organization. While I already have my plate full – this has been a side project I am growing more passionate about. It helps Spot.Us (I’m not 100% altruistic here) but I genuinely believe in being part of a larger community. Journalism is a big part of my life. But so is the Bay Area. So are civic organizations. So are people who want to be empowered. And that’s why I think the Public Media Collaborative has grown, very naturally, from 5-6 of us having dinner talking about doing good – to a growing force able to organize the following.

We are holding events October 23rd and 24th.

What is a Beast Blogger Camp?

Check out a video fo the first one Spot.Us organized

This next Beast Blogger camp will be even better with support from the Knight Digital Media Center at U.C. Berkeley who will provide training in.

SoundSlides
Google Tools
SEO tips and tricks

We will also have conversations about Wordpress, blogging for business, blogging for fun and more.

Want to know more about PMC?

Check out this video of Susan Mernit taken by George Kelly.

(video courtesy of PMC

News Organizations: How Transparent Can We Be?

2009-09-15T20:52:41Z

Back in the spring, I made an analogy about journalism being a game of chess. On the chess board of journalism, content is King (the most important piece) but collaboration is Queen (the most powerful piece).

To extend the analogy further: transparency is the board itself.

Unfortunately, freelancing is a horribly antiquated system. It works behind closed doors. Independent freelancers are left out in the cold and have to build personal relationships with editors to get any paid work.

These relationships are always one-to-one. This make it an outdated model. It made perfect sense 30 years ago, but now it needs to be re-thought. That will only happen when the process of journalism, including the business processes of news organizations comes out from under its cloak.

It was in conversations with Steve Katz that I realized one of the breakthroughs of Spot.Us is that we help make the process of journalism transparent.

Traditionally, news organizations are transparent with their finished work. “Extra, extra, read all about it.”

That is necessary but in my opinion it is no longer sufficient.

If transparency is the new objectivity — more than our finished product must be revealed.

In a discussion with another editor last week I realized another transparency boundary Spot.Us is pushing on organizations that collaborate with us: We force them to be transparent about where they spend their money with freelancers.

Freelancing is outdated

Thirty years ago, I would probably snail mail my pitches to editors with a self-addressed envelope inside so editors could write me back. Today the Internet allows freelancers to email pitches. But that seems to be the ONLY evolution in the process. Our communication in the process of procuring work, writing stories and editing stories is faster, but fundamentally happens in one-to-one relationships. The public never sees this. Nor do they see the pain of waiting — which was the topic of one of my earliest blog posts from 2005 — for responses, edits, or checks.

Here’s what I wrote last week to the editor: “To work with Spot.Us you have to be transparent about where you would spend your freelance budget. Every organization that works with Spot.Us is transparent about where they are putting their dollars or at least where they are putting their editorial efforts.”

The editor responded that it would be scary to make an editor’s freelance budget so public.

That’s exactly the point!

We are supposed to shine a light on other industries, public and private. How can we be expected to be a public beacon if we ourselves hide behind a veil of secrecy?

Some valid counterpoints

As always, I want to push boundaries but recognize that some aren’t going to go anywhere. A few reasons why.

The process of journalism (editing, re-writing, etc.) is boring. We can make it transparent for the nerds who are interested, but let’s not scare our audience off. Also: If you are investigating the mafia you don’t need to title that in your Spot.Us pitch (I’m not THAT young and naive).
It takes energy to be transparent. Just because an organization isn’t transparent doesn’t mean they are nefarious — it simply means there’s 2,134,241 other things that they’re focused on instead of this issue.
You tell me!

I recognize I come at this from one extreme. I believe transparency is the new objectivity and that news organizations are hurting in part because as large institutions they are ill-equipped to be transparent. Here’s how they are ill-equipped:

They are ill-equipped to be transparent in their personalities: It’s okay to have a voice. Personally, I’m sick of the traditional news voice. But it’s the only one they have.
They are ill-equipped to be transparent in their editorial processes. Distributed reporting is an emerging art and large news organizations have yet to master it. (For some good examples of distributed reporting, see NewAssignment.Net, OffTheBus.Net, ProPublica’s efforts and this Nieman Journalism article.)
They are ill-equipped to be transparent in their business processes. Distributed funding is also an emerging field. (See Spot.Us, ReelChanges.org, Global For Me.)
They are ill-equipped to be transparent in their day-to-day operations: It’s a dream of mine — a newsroom cafe.

As always: I say this not to be an “anti-old media” person. That’s not what I’m about. I bring it up in an effort to point to areas where I see room (and need) for improvement.

Video’s on Journalism: Thoughts on the future and ChiTownDaily News Closure

2009-09-12T17:11:15Z

Digidave Does the News #1: Chi Town Daily News Closes

Digidave’s first attempt at just talking about the news in front of a camerae instead of spending all that time writing a blog post. This rant is on the ChiTownDaily News shutting down. Details can be found: “Confessions of an Ex-ChiTownDaily Staffer,” how the story broke, statement from ChiTownDaily and the Tribune’s coverage.

This is also my first attempt at doing a video blog post instead of a text blog post. Let me know what you think.

For the Pontificators

The next few videos come from some kind of conference/panel on journalism. Each of the subjects in the video are asked to describe where journalism is going and what it will be like in five years.

The Insiders: Mark Luckie on the Future of Journalism

Mark Luckie is awesome….. 10,000 words.

The Insiders: Nick Penniman on the Future of Journalism

Nick who runs the Huffington Posts investigative fund discusses the future of journalism.
Tags: video

Ana Marie Cox on the Future of Journalism

As part of a Nation Magazine series on the shape of journalism in the years to come, Air America’s Ana Marie Cox sounds off on what she thinks journalism and the media will look like in 5-10 years. Also interesting to hear her idea about how politico works and that reporters might work directly for politicians. I am a fan of Ana Marie Cox for the crowfunding she did while on the campaign trail after Radar Magazine shut down. Very Spot.Us!

The Insiders: David Schimke on the Future of Journalism

David Schimke of the Utne Reader gives his view on where the media is headed.

Indiana Congressman Refuses To Allow Journalism Student To Video Town Hall

A Congressman is boo’d for not letting a student journalist video tape his town hall meetings.
Tags: video

Peter B. Collins on Advocacy Journalism

Long-time radio talk show host Peter B. Collins discusses his embrace of advocacy journalism, his podcast series, and collaborating with FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds.
Tags: Media & Journalism, journalism, advocacy, video

Weekend Video Fun – Best YouTube Content on Journalism

2009-09-05T00:42:23Z

Some funny, some educational, some serious and some historical (these are also a little funny).

First: Just for Laughs

Auto-Tune the News #7

Purely for laughs: I love these auto-tune the news songs. If you haven’t seen it yet, give it a shot. These songs were stuck in my head all last week.

Journalism Fail

Awesome…. and also just for laughs. Poor reporter – looks like he wants to do a good job.

What News Anchors Do During Commercial Breaks w/sound

Last one purely for laughs. WGN News anchors Robert Jordan and Jackie Bange have been together for many years. This whole thing started out really small and simple. And then along came the internet, and a video camera.

Now – Some Educational Videos

Tips from Bob Woodward on Investigative Journalism

The Pope Speaks: Bob Woodward explains the three ways journalists get their information and comments on the future of in-depth journalism in the digital age.

Definition of Citizen Journalism

Created by my friends at The Uptake and staring “Boss Rosen,” this is a great video for its brevity.

Yellow Journalism: Origins and Definition

Video on Yellow journalism, a type of journalism that downplays legitimate news in favor of eye-catching headlines that sell more newspapers.

Citizen Journalism – What Is It ?

A little over-dramatic now this video came out early to try and explain citizen journalism. Robin Good always produces good stuff.

Some Historical Videos

1981 primitive Internet report on KRON

Long before anyone had heard of the Internet, early home computer users could read their morning newspapers online … sort of. Steve Newman’s 1981 story was broadcast on KRON San Francisco.

SUPER old school journalism film

This film takes us back to the beginning of the 20th century and their approach/attitude towards journalism. It is a golden nugget. To give you a sense of where they are before you even click they talk about women in the newsroom as “unable to compete” with the men on certain sections but are more suitable for the food and fashion sections.

Finally: Misc and for Discussion

Blogger Asks for Payment From a Newspaper

Writer Tina Dupuy requests $75 from the Media General owned Tampa Tribune for publishing her article sans her permission.

We Aren’t Still Looking for a Silver Bullet, Are We?

2009-08-23T01:35:29Z

An analogy I’ve been using lately.

Journalists are awash at sea. Floating around us are various logs. We are reaching out to them in hopes they’ll sustain our weight and keep us afloat.

But it is a mistake to think any single log can keep us afloat. Try it and you’ll end up like Leonardo DiCaprio at the end of Titanic.

What news organizations need is a piece of sturdy rope to tie several logs together in an effort to make a raft. Think Tom Hanks in Cast Away

Too often I think journalists or news organizations are looking for a silver bullet revenue stream.

Oh – if only we can charge for content behind a paywall (a bad idea as it cuts off other revenue streams).
Oh – if only we can get the Sandler family (or equivalent) to give 2 million a year to several organizations around the country.
Oh – if only advertising online would start to cover our traditional costs. (Advertising online will never meet the old print numbers)
Oh – if only we can get 100,000 people to donate $10 each. (Hey, I can pick on my model too!)

I’m sure for many this isn’t news, but it needs to be said regardless. Let’s have a reality check.

It aint gonna happen.

Normally I leave the naysaying to Alan Mutter who does it better than anyone (just playing with ya Alan, but you know it’s true).

But if we are to be realistic none of these will work in quantities large enough to sustain the way journalism was done 20 years ago. At least not according to any of the numbers that have been reported to me.

Much like Enron stock: If it looks to good to be true, it probably is.

So What Do We Do?

Each of those revenue streams are logs. Some are sturdier than others. We need to figure out how to tie them all together.

This is why paywalls are such a contested debate. If you erect a paywall, you can say goodbye to a healthy advertising revenue stream.

Semi-solution: You create a premium paywall. Or like RawStory.com have a premium membership that removes advertising. Most of your content will be free surrounded by annoying adverts and some will be premium.

These are the conversations and concessions that the news industry needs to have. What reveneue streams can we combine with a few others so that if they get bashed during a recession it holds up.

Spot.Us or small donations is a revenue stream. I have been focusing very narrowly on this one log. That is not because I view it as a silver bullet, but because it is a log many news organizations will need to rely on for anywhere from 5-25 percent of their revenue. My goal with Spot.Us is to build the tools and system so that news organizations can rely on Spot.Us as a sturdy log whenever they need to collect small donations. But I will NEVER claim that Spot.Us can sustain an entire news organization. Nor can it sustain a single journalists entire career. That’s why Spot.Us is built around collaboration.

Other streams that are untapped.

Becoming an ISP provider (might only work in rural regions)
Events! Look at the tech blogs: Mashable has parties for their MTV crowd, TechCrunch has startup conventions for the biz crowd, ReadWriteWeb has conferences for their straight geek crowd. Could the SF Chronicle host an event for public discussion and charge at the door?
Ad networks. The best thoughts around this I’ve seen recently come from Boss Jarvis’ presentation at Aspen. Say what you want about the numbers – the concept deserves exploring.
Newsroom cafe anyone? Still one of my most commented on blog posts.
ViewPass or as I understand it – increasing our knowledge of readers to increase CPM.

There are probably a few dozen more we could brainstorm.

The trick is figuring out how we can make these all work together. We need services that can help news organizations roll these out together. Systems that play well with each other and don’t lock the others out. That’s why I like Mark Pott’s GrowthSpur. It isn’t trying to BE a news organization with a single focus. It’s focusing on a log (looks like advertising to start) and will help other organizations find and put weight on that log. Then the news organization can spend time focusing on other logs. Or, if they are smart reach out to other news service providers (like Spot.Us) to put weight on their logs as well.

In essence – Spot.Us, GrowthSpur and others are trying to be the rope that news organizations need so they can distribute their financial weight across several revenue streams.

Lessons in Crowdfunding

2009-08-23T02:16:13Z

Written for Beth Kanter’s blog.

Almost ten months ago I launched Spot.Us via a Knight Foundation grant which is trying to pioneer “community funded reporting,” the act of distributing the cost of hiring an investigative journalist. In short: I fundraise for independent reporters but not through foundations or grant writing. Spot.Us fundraises by making the argument to the public that this reporting will benefit us all. If we can get 30-50 people to donate $20 each around a specific topic – we are in business.

It’s often called “crowdfunding.”I grabbed the term (and the concept for Spot.Us) while I was the research assistant for Jeff Howe who coined the phrase “crowdsourcing.” While working on the chapter about crowdfunding I began studying Kiva.org, Donors Choose, Sell A Band and other organizations exploring this space. In many ways Spot.Us is my interpretation of the practices and principles they were employing for journalism.

So what are those practices and principles? What are the concrete lessons, mistakes, ideas I can pass along to others who might want to join this space? In truth there are countless lessons every day. But here are a few that stick very prominently in my mind.

Specificity and Transparency

Make sure all your ducks are in a row before you launch. It’s a natural inclination to launch the fundraiser the second you have the idea. We’ve done this on Spot.Us too many times. We always find that when we take the time to get our messaging, goals, and deliverables in a row first, we do much better.

A good example of this is the City Budget Watchdog series on Spot.Us which has raised $3,785. That series was originally called “City Budget Blues” and if you watch our quick video pitch you’ll see remnants of that title. It was only a week or two in that we realized our messaging was way off. “City Budget Blues” was a bit of a downer and while very on point wasn’t tied to the goal of the project – to be a watchdog of city hall at a time when others weren’t acting as the watchdog.

Make sure you’ve accounted for.

A specific attainable goal
The justification for that goal and why people should donate
Messaging: Make sure all parties involved know the messaging.
A clearly defined deliverable

From the donor perspective transparency means something else. It means you know exactly where your money goes.

What’s the difference between donating on NPR and donating on Spot.Us.

The images below should make the case apparent. And NPR has even improved recently in letting a donation be more transparent and accountable.

NPR’s Ask

Sot.Us’ Ask

Now imagine if both of these donations were for NPR.

In one case NPR would let you donate to the organization or a specific NPR affiliate near you. In the second case NPR would let you donate to a specific story. You’d have a bunch to choose from and you could pick the one that meant the most to you. Fundraising is nothing new. People have been doing it for as long as…. well…. people. What the Internet has allowed is a transparency and specificity in the act of fundraising that turns a donation not just into a “good feeling” but a statement and value judgment about who we are as individuals. It can be fun. The best Spot.Us pitches are those that give the donor that sense of ownership.

Deadlines and Concrete Goals.

Deadlines and restrictions are great. No joke! Whenever possible give yourself a deadline. It is amazing what we are capable of when put between a hard place and a deadline. Moreover deadlines give you and your collaborators in fundraising (the donors) something to rally against. It’s a battle against time. One feature set I know Spot.Us needs is a ticking clock that counts down the days left. Right now we don’t have that – but whenever we Tweet “x days left to reach y goal” we get a reaction. Knowing there is a time limit on something gets people moving. It also gives us a narrative. And that leads directly into……

Have Something to Cheer About.

In one of our more successfully fundraising examples we caught the attention of a local blog that covered crime in Oakland. Excited about the work we were doing they asked if they could send out an email blast to their list of 500+ about the reporting efforts we were undertaking. It worked out well – raising a few hundred dollars and spreading through a few other email lists eventually propelling us to our goal within 12 days.

What initially caught their attention?

A single Tweet I had done about a single blog post from the reporter. The blog post was just an update about their reporting efforts. Some might have even thought it mundane. But it gave us something to cheer about “hey – look at this, the reporting process in action.” Giving updates along the way, big or small, gives people something concrete to examine.

Many people will not donate the first, second or third time they hear about a fundraising effort. According to Robert Greenwald of Brave New Films it takes on average seven asks before somebody will become a donor. Okay – so how can one ask seven times without sounding redundant or annoying? Don’t make a direct ask: Just tell the story of your progress. Be a cheerleader and that does the asking for you.

In many ways Spot.Us is always trying to tell two narratives. The story of our pitches (the reporting) and the story of our site and the pitches (their progress). What are some interesting aspects of telling a story? Getting new and interesting characters. That’s where partners and collaborations can be huge.

Finding the Right Partners

It’s easy to want to partner with everyone. Hey, if you can just convince a few dozen people to join you right off the batt you’ll have some good momentum and coalition building can get lead you to think that everyone is a potential partner.

That isn’t the case and assuming right off the bat that your project will be valued by other organizations is a mistake that will jump back in your face. It certainly has for me when approaching disenfranchised communities. Even with the best of intentions other organizations, especially media organizations (even alternative ones), are viewed as with suspicion. Partnering doesn’t happen at the drop of a phone call.

What should you look for in partnerships? Here are the things we’ve found we need for all partnerships.

Trust – we want to work with folks that we can trust and who trust us.
The collaboration should be in the interest of all parties.
“Buy in” with decision makers. They need to be on board otherwise it will hit the fan later.
Key liaison – somebody from every party who is tasked to the project.
Commitment of time/resources and/or money from both parties. It does not need to be all three.
Money: Yes, it is the root of all evil, but a little money can grease the wheels. A commitment from each partner to try and fundraise x amount also works.
The story/project. We are looking for good stories – that has to be at the heart of it all.

When you do find the right partner it can go a long way. Especially if you are able to land a big partnership. One article in the NY Times can raise upwards of $6,000. One newspaper many checkbooks.

Community is your core

Another central character in the narrative of your fundraising, what you can cheerlead about, is your growing community. These are your heroes. “I aint too proud to beg” was always a great quote (The Temptations). But that means you “aint too proud to thank” everyone and anyone. No donor is too small. You’d be amazed at what can happen when you give just a little attention to the smallest donor. The more personable and personal you are the more one-time donors become partners.

On occasion you might get a member of your community who will help cheerlead with you.

This one Tweet from Tim O’rielly brought in several hundred dollars within a matter of hours.

You don’t have to be the only cheerleader. Other people can join you – but they’ll only show as much enthusiasm and passion as you do. Somebody has to wrangle the project and lead by example.

Don’t confuse the medium and the message. Sure, it’s great that we can fundraise for independent journalists on a custom built site like Spot.Us. But we could also do it with a simple ChipIn widget.

You can get started with JUST a wiki.

That’s right: Spot.Us started 10 months ago using JUST a wiki. It was free to setup. We used a third party site, The Point, to collect money. There are countless sites that will collect money on your behalf. Facebook Cause, Kickstarter, First Giving and more. Rather than build an entire system yourself use whatever is already out there. You might also check to see if there are any sites that work around your specific niche like Donors Choose for teachers. I’d check out Social Actions to get a sense of other players in the space.

Just yesterday I found another reporting project on The Point.