This document summarizes the Spot.Us community-funded reporting model in 3 sentences: Spot.Us allows community members to pledge resources to fund journalism stories and reports, with story ideas created and pitched publicly, and reporters writing contracts to produce the stories, which are then reviewed and paired with editors or news organizations. The document also reflects on lessons learned in starting Spot.Us, including the importance of collaborations, remaining agile, ensuring editorial oversight of freelancers, and addressing the challenges of building partnerships and transparency in community-funded journalism.

1. Spot.Us
Lessons in Community Funded Reporting

2. How Spot.Us Works
• Can ‘give back‘ to Spot.Us
members getting rights to
content.
• Anyone can create a story tip.
• Quality content for lower price.
Community • Groups form to ‘pledge’ resources.
• Licensed under CC if nobody
buys exclusivity - owned by all.
Can create story ideas.
News Organizations Reporters
Can invest in future content Pitch the public
• Reporters write a contract for
• Matches Peer Review
editor or news
hire (a pitch).
organization.
Spot.Us • Groups form to ‘donate’
resources.
Organizes a marketplace

3. My personal
experience
Organization formed one year ago. Site
launched eight months ago.
• Startups should be called rampups
• Collaborations are key, but are also a
delicate art.
• Remain agile and iterative

4. The Theory of Donating
•People donate to NPR. How is
Spot.Us Different?
Throwing money over a wall
vs......

5. Transparency and Control

6. Donating is Social
Every pitch is a campaign.

7. What Pitches Work?
•Stories with relevance. Anchored in
a geographic/ethnic community or
question.

8. Editorial Lessons
•Freelancers benefit from editorial
oversight.
•Volunteer editors work better than
low paid editors.
•Beat pitches, data pitches and more.

9. 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.

10. 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.