Put Up and Read Up (Part II)

Here’s the rest of my interview with Spot Us director David Cohn:

This Media Moment: Tell me about your journalism career thus far.

David Cohn: My entire career has been online. I wrote for Wired.com, Seed Magazine, and was a technology and science freelance writer. I interned at the Columbia Journalism Review and worked for (NYU journalism professor and media blogger) Jay Rosen.

Cohn went from being a tech reporter to a tech consultant to news organizations. He explained to editors the idea of citizen journalism and how to implement projects focused on reader-reporter interaction.

While researching crowdfunding for a chapter in a book being written by a Wired Magazine editor, Cohn decided to pitch the idea to news organizations. Why not adopt a platform where readers could suggest topics and help fund the journalism?

Editors didn’t bite. But Knight did.

TMM: So you get this grant and put up a Web site. What’s on there now?

DC: Right now the site is under development. I decided against a “ta-da” moment. I wanted to reveal what I’m doing as quickly as possible. You can see some of the article pitches on the wiki, and between that and the blog, that’s what I’ve been working on.

TMM: Explain what’s on the wiki.

DC: There are two things right now: Pitches from reporters (ranging in topic from recycling to future of policing) and article ideas that were suggested by members of the community. That’s the way it’s going to work – writers will come up with their ideas and pitch them, and the community will also have tips.

TMM: Let’s go through the details of how this is going to work once the site is fully functional. From your Web site…

Step 1: An individual or journalist creates a pitch that outlines an untold story in a local community.

TMM: Which stories move forward and which ones don’t?

DC: I don’t decide, because I don’t want to define what is and isn’t good journalism. In the end what Spot Us is is a marketplace where independent journalists, news organizations and community groups meet and work together. Money has normally been left out of the equation, because it’s assumed the articles are paid for by the news organizations. But that’s increasingly not going to be the case.

Step 2: Members of your community vote, with their money, on what stories are most important to them.

DC: I’d argue that if 50 people come together, agree a topic should be covered and reach for their wallets, news organizations should respond. If we don’t, we deserve everything that’s happened to us as an industry.

Step 3: A journalist researches the facts and puts together an article. Editors provide check-and-balance on the story.

TMM: What’s the journalist’s obligation once he’s pitched the idea and set a price?

DC: If this is a marketplace, the pitch is a contract. The reporter is saying, ‘Here’s what I’ll do and for how much.’ That’s half the contract. Then it goes to the public. Say only $500 is raised for a $1,000 story. The journalist doesn’t have to do anything unless full funding is reached.

TMM: What are you looking for in journalists? Do you have to be a freelancer?

DC: You can be working for a news organization, but anything for Spot Us has to be as a contractor for us. I’m not writing checks to news organizations.

In fact, 90 percent of the money raised by the community goes to the reporter, while 10 percent goes to what Cohn calls a “quality assurance editor,” who is selected by Cohn based on that person's area of expertise. The editor does fact checking to insure balanced reporting, Cohn said.

TMM: What’s an average project going to cost?

DC: I’m expecting in the range of $1,000-$2,000. It’s supposed to be an investigation -- longer-form journalism, not day-one stories. Even if the writer asks for $250, it probably won’t be raised that day.

Readers already raised the $2,500 needed for a project that aims to fact check political ads in local S.F. elections. More than 70 individuals sponsored the project, with some donating as much as $150 and some as little as $2.

Spot Us doesn't allow any one donor to give more than 20 percent of the cost of the story. That's one way Cohn said he addresses the concern that crowdfunding is just journalism being bought by the highest bidder.

DC: A reporter is being commissioned by the public and isn't beholden to one person. Names of the donors are there for people to see. I want to ensure that no more than 20 percent of money for an article comes from anonymous donors. One of my guiding philosophies is that journalism should be a participatory process. I don’t want people to donate money in sort of a hidden way and disappear. The appearance of a scandal is as bad as a scandal itself.

TMM: But what's going to stop a group with a clear political agenda from rounding up its members, pitching a story and collectively paying for it? Are you concerned about the system being abused?

DC: My snide response is there’s no such thing as clean money. The more reasonable response is that there are lots of steps that have to be taken for the system to be abused. First, the political group in the example you use has to be well organized. Then it has to find a reporter who’s willing to put his professional reputation on the line. Group members need to hope a quality assurance editor doesn’t raise a red flag. The idea is that with checks and balances there won’t be any crappy stories.

Even if all this happens, and it gets published on our site, the only people who are going to read it are members of the political group who paid the money.

TMM: But won’t the article be prominently displayed on your site?

DC: I’m not going to be highlighting the content produced. It’s not like a blog or a news site. You can read the stories, but it’s not a news destination. The goal is to get other news destinations to re-publish it.

Step 4: Spot Us publishes the story in its news feed and works with local media outlets to have articles published more widely.

DC: There are three ways a news organization can use the content:

1. We’ll give publications the story once it’s already been published on our site and totally community funded.
2. If editors at a publication find out about an article that’s about to be published and is 100 percent community funded, they can buy it in its entirety, pay the journalist and refund community members 100 percent.
3. If there’s been a public pitch and only 25 percent of the money has been raised, a news organization can put down 50 percent of the price and have temporary exclusive rights to it. That option is there until the story is 51 percent community funded – at that point there’s no exclusivity. So a publication’s buy-in has to be either 50 percent or 100 percent.

TMM: You’re being very up front about what articles are being researched. Is there a concern that between the time money is being raised and the article is finalized that other reporters will pick story idea?

DC: My gut reaction is that [the reporter] will look like a jerk. The real answer is that it makes much more sense for the publication to work with me than against me. Rather than use a reporter, who is a precious resource, the news organization can either have the story for free or buy it early on. Otherwise they’ll be chasing every pitch – and I guarantee we have more freelancers than they have reporters on staff.

TMM: Is the plan to make this a national site?

DCC: This is in the Bay Area only now, and if it ends up being only a San Francisco site I’m totally fine with that. But I’d love it if this grows into a national project -- though it’s always going to be local journalism. If this works here, there’s no reason why we can’t take it to another city. If this idea expands and it’s not on my site, I’m fine with that, too.