Case Study: Spot.us
Much heralded on its conception Spot.us actually went offline earlier this year. There was much talk of it being an industry saviour back in 2008 but it did still raise a few concerns:
"Critics say the idea of using crowdfunding to finance journalism raises some troubling questions. For example, if a neighborhood with an agenda pays for an article, how is that different from a tobacco company backing an article about smoking? (Spot Us limits the amount any one contributor can give to no more than 20 percent of the cost of the story.)
But Jeff Howe, a contributing editor at Wired Magazine whose book “Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business” is being published this month said: “It’s not like the crowd is killing the newspaper. Lots of things are killing the newspaper. The crowd is at once a threat to newsrooms, but it’s also one of several strategies that could help save the newspapers.”
(http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/24/weekinreview/24kershaw.html?_r=2&)So why did it fail? Jounralist Joellen Easton produced this analysis in February 2015 on the failure:
"Our analysis also showed:
- Most Spot.us projects were funded by friends and family, as opposed to community members with an interest in or a need for that information.
- The majority of Spot.us funders gave once and never returned.
- The market for crowdfunding journalism projects in general, as based on actual donations, is tiny, accounting for just 0.13 percent of the $2.8 billion raised in FY2013.
- Journalism projects have a 63 percent failure rate compared to 56 percent for all projects.
- There are few successes, business model-wise, for scaling and sustaining a crowdfunding platform."
This article then goes on to give an excellent insight into how to successfully buid a crowdfunded venture with a detailed plan from 0-90 days
Its a real worry that the market for crowdfunding is so small. Just 0.13 percent! This is going have to be considered in my theoretical arguments as part of this project. How can something so small have any significant impact over the dominant cultural hegemony of our time?
It also does serve as an indicator of the perils of being an investigative journalist in the modern age of internet news where the dominant payment model is advertising. Thus encouraging click-bait news and a dumbing down of news values.
"On the other hand, we live in the worst of times for freelance journalism. With conventional media slashing freelance budgets, putting independent journalists and foreign stringers in precarious situations, and new media outlets often failing completely to provide the kind of financial backing that is required for freelancers to report stories responsibly (not to mention benefits of any sort), freelancers are more than ever functioning as the journalistic equivalent of cook, server, and bottle washer, as well as accountant, fund raiser, and payroll department." (http://alldigitocracy.org/how-can-we-fund-independent-journalism/)
This article also draws us to these observations about the difficulties the crowdfunded model can face:
"For one thing, they involve a considerable amount of work without the promise of necessarily receiving funding. For another, there’s the question of how sustainable these models are for journalists who’d like to rely upon them over the long-haul. Even in the case of Contributoria, where backers aren’t pledging any of their own money to a project, several journalists who have used the service three or more times have found it difficult to lean on their networks repeatedly, despite the fact that pledging support takes less than two minutes." (http://alldigitocracy.org/how-can-we-fund-independent-journalism/)
Another good site I found about tips for crowdfunding success is here:
http://www.niemanlab.org/2015/06/crowdfunding-revenue-diversity-and-legalese-some-takeaways-from-the-lion-publishers-conference/
Their thirteen top tips for crowdfunding is an interesting read. I might take on some of these tips as my own campaign is still at $0 !
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