journalism-ventures.html

<p>Text published on <a href="http://www.davidbauer.ch/2013/10/20/an-unfinished-list-of-ventures-in-journalism-you-should-be-watching-and-why/">davidbauer.ch</a></p>

<h2>An unfinished list of ventures in journalism you should be watching (and why)</h2>

<p>One thing that makes current times so interesting for journalism is that everybody is still looking for a model that will work for journalism in the 21st century. Given the speed of technological change and the complexity of what is now the media landscape, it's unlikely we'll ever find a model that will work for more than a few years for more than a few publishers. The hype around native advertising or metered paywalls is primarily a manifestation of the hope for silver bullets.</p>

<p>There will have to be lots of experiments.</p>

<p>So here's a list of journalism ventures worth watching closely, each for a different set of reasons.</p>

<p>I'm fully aware that this list falls short of highlighting all the movers and shakers in the field of journalism. That's why I put <a href="https://github.com/davidbauer/writing">this article on Github</a> for everyone to edit and suggest additions (if you prefer the comments section or <a href="http://www.twitter.com/davidbauer">Twitter</a>, that's of course fine, too). My view is inevitably biased towards European and English language ventures, so I'm especially glad if you point me to ventures from Africa, South America and Asia.</p>

<p>For now, I've left out all the ventures that are entering the media sphere from a tech background, like Twitter, LinkedIn, Flipboard, Zite and many more. Neither have I included the likes of The New York Times or The Guardian, assuming that everyone is watching them already.</p>

<h3 id="Betaworks">Betaworks</h3>
<strong>What?</strong> Startup incubator, investor, builder based in New York City.

<strong>Why? </strong>With Digg, Instapaper, Tapestry and Bloglovin in their portfolio, they've only started <a href="http://blog.betaworks.com/post/49362721037/dots-a-game-about-connecting">connecting the dots</a> (pun intended).

<strong>Where? </strong><a href="http://betaworks.com/">Betaworks</a>

<h3 id="Buzzfeed">Buzzfeed</h3>
<strong>What?</strong> Listicle powerhouse with increasingly serious ambitions in all branches of journalism.

<strong>Why? </strong>They are showing how to grow and <a href="http://endofjournalism.tumblr.com/post/64042416775/buzzfeeds-plan-to-translate-its-listicles-is">internationalise like a tech company</a> rather than a media company. What will it mean for Buzzfeed and journalism as a whole if more and more sites buzzfeedify themselves?

<strong>Where? </strong><a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com">Buzzfeed</a>

<h3 id="Circa">Circa</h3>
<strong>What?</strong> News app that curates individual story elements into mobile-friendly narratives.

<strong>Why? </strong>They are completely rethinking news narratives for the mobile age with what they call <a href="http://blog.cir.ca/2013/07/25/the-unit-of-news-we-all-already-use/">«atomisation of articles»</a>. Will be also interesting to watch how their use of notifications – based on what news a user is following – will evolve.

<strong>Where? </strong><a href="http://www.cir.ca">Circa</a>

<h3 id="DeCorrespondent">De Correspondent</h3>
<strong>What?</strong> Amsterdam-based site for in depth-reporting.

<strong>Why? </strong>If you can raise over $1 million from future readers in eight days, can you take it from there?

<strong>Where? </strong><a href="https://decorrespondent.nl">De Correspondent</a>

<h3 id="EpicMagazine">Epic Magazine</h3>
<strong>What?</strong> Publisher of longform stories that have the potential to become movie scripts.

<strong>Why? </strong>How to plan lifecycle monetisation of big narratives.

<strong>Where? </strong><a href="http://epicmagazine.com/">Epic Magazine</a>

<h3 id="EveningEdition">Evening Edition</h3>
<strong>What?</strong> An evening briefing on the most important stories of the day.

<strong>Why? </strong>A question for everyone: What can we make of the evening?

<strong>Where? </strong><a href="http://evening-edition.com/">Evening Edition</a>

<h3 id="Fivethirtyeight">Fivethirtyeight</h3>
<strong>What?</strong> Nate Silver's statistics blog of election fame, formerly part of the New York Times, due to be relaunched as a standalone project, albeit owned by ESPN.

<strong>Why? </strong>Can Nate Silver scale his approach to turn his elections blog into a general interest site and continue to inspire statistics-based journalism?

<strong>Where? </strong><a href="http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/">Fivethirtyeight</a>

<h3 id="Forbes">Forbes</h3>
<strong>What?</strong> Business news magazine.

<strong>Why? </strong>After turning Forbes into a platform by establishing a sound contributor model, Lewis Dvorkin's next steps will be interesting to watch.

<strong>Where? </strong><a href="http://www.forbes.com/">Forbes</a>

<h3 id="Hi">Hi</h3>
<strong>What?</strong> Platform for storytelling around images and places.

<strong>Why? </strong>A novel, yet very intuitive approach to storytelling: You start short – when people ask you to «Tell more», you expand.

<strong>Where? </strong><a href="http://www.sayhi.co/">Hi</a>

<h3 id="Journalism++">Journalism++</h3>
<strong>What?</strong> Multinational, independent network of data journalists.

<strong>Why? </strong>As data journalism is still growing slowly within newsrooms, they are paving the way by producing exemplary work and educating others.

<strong>Where? </strong><a href="http://jplusplus.org/">Journalism++</a>

<h3 id="Matter">Matter</h3>
<strong>What?</strong> Subscription based longform stories «about science, technology and the ideas shaping our future.»

<strong>Why? </strong>For trying to create a rich package around longform journalism and sell it by the piece.

<strong>Where? </strong><a href="https://www.readmatter.com">Matter</a>

<h3 id="Mediapart">Mediapart</h3>
<strong>What?</strong> Paris-based news site with ironclad paywall.

<strong>Why? </strong>How to be profitable with no advertising at all.

<strong>Where? </strong><a href="http://www.mediapart.fr/">Mediapart</a>

<h3 id="Medium">Medium</h3>
<strong>What?</strong> A publishing platform by Twitter co-founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone.

<strong>Why? </strong>How can the interface, especially the writing enviroment, be used to improve the quality of the output?

<strong>Where? </strong><a href="http://www.medium.com">Medium</a>

<h3 id="NextDraft">Next Draft</h3>
<strong>What?</strong> One man curation newsletter by Dave Pell.

<strong>Why? </strong>Curation is 50% finding the right content and 50% finding a distinct style to present it. Dave Pell is a model for both.

<strong>Where? </strong><a href="http://nextdraft.com/">Next Draft</a>

<h3 id="Nowthisnews">Nowthisnews</h3>
<strong>What?</strong> News site that produces content specifically for social platforms like Instagram or Vine.

<strong>Why? </strong>How to produce content that not only spreads over social media, but actually works right there?

<strong>Where? </strong><a href="www.nowthisnews.com">Nowthisnews</a>

<h3 id="ProjectX">Project X</h3>
<strong>What?</strong> Whatever it is that Gleen Greenwald will be launching with Pierre Omidyar (see Jay Rosen's post for the best available info on it).

<strong>Why? </strong>What will a digital-only venture focused on investigative journalism look like? How will it impact the traditional houses known for investigative reporting, such as the NYT, the Washington Post or The Guardian?

<strong>Where? </strong>Yet to be launched.  See <a href="http://pressthink.org/2013/10/why-pierre-omidyar-decided-to-join-forces-with-glenn-greenwald-for-a-new-venture-in-news/">Jay Rosen's pos</a>t for the best available info on it.

<h3 id="ProjectY">Project Y</h3>
<strong>What?</strong> An upcoming site by Trinity Mirror making «socially shareable data journalism».

<strong>Why? </strong>Can the people who made <a href="#usvsth3m">Usvsth3m</a> an instant success repeat that with data journalism? What will be their approach be to make data journalism explicitly «socially shareable»?

<strong>Where? </strong>Yet to be launched.  See <a href="http://martinbelam.com/2013/mysterious-project-y/">Martin Belam's announcement</a> for more.

<h3 id="Quartz">Quartz</h3>
<strong>What?</strong> Business news site, founded by The Atlantic in 2012.

<strong>Why? </strong>Very resource-effective with their browser-only approach and highly standardised article formats and <a href="http://quartzthings.tumblr.com/post/56881648113/weve-just-open-sourced-chartbuilder-the-tool">charts</a>. The biggest takeaway is from their editorial approach, though: They make people read business news who didn't know they were interested in business.

<strong>Where? </strong><a href="qz.com">Quartz</a>

<h3 id="Storyful">Storyful</h3>
<strong>What?</strong> A «news agency of the social media age» from Dublin, Ireland.

<strong>Why? </strong>For using technology and crowdsourcing to create a news agency for the 21st century.

<strong>Where? </strong><a href="storyful.com">Storyful</a>

<h3 id="SyriaDeeply">Syria Deeply</h3>
<strong>What?</strong> In-depth reporting on Syria's ongoing war.

<strong>Why? </strong>Take one big issue of our time, double down on it and become the go-to-source for anyone interested in it (while making more people interested in it in the first place).

<strong>Where? </strong><a href="beta.syriadeeply.org">Syria Deeply</a>

<h3 id="Upworthy">Upworthy</h3>
<strong>What?</strong> Curation site, dedicated to spreading «things that matter».

<strong>Why? </strong>They've proved that you can make serious content go viral. Should be a lesson to everyone who, when writing headlines, is still mistaking boring for serious.

<strong>Where? </strong><a href="http://www.upworthy.com">Upworthy</a>

<h3 id="Usvsth3m">Usvsth3m</h3>
<strong>What?</strong> Well, a Tumblr. A wildly successful one. Owned by Trinity Mirror.

<strong>Why? </strong>How to pull off innovation within a big media enterprise. Also: casual games with a newsy twist.

<strong>Where? </strong><a href="http://usvsth3m.com/">Usvsth3m</a>

<h3 id="Vox Media">Vox Media</h3>
<strong>What?</strong> The publisher behind The Verge, SB Nation and Polygon.

<strong>Why? </strong>One of the very few media ventures where the CMS drives, not hinders creativity. On a strategic level: With it's latest big capital infusion, what's next for Vox?

<strong>Where? </strong><a href="http://www.voxmedia.com">Vox Media</a>

<h3 id="Watson">Watson</h3>
<strong>What?</strong> We'll know exactly in 2014. Zurich-based new venture by Hansi Voigt, former editor-in-chief of 20 Minuten Online.

<strong>Why? </strong>The first digital only, technology-driven news venture in Switzerland.

<strong>Where? </strong><a href="http://www.watson.ch/">Watson </a>

<h3>Now, add yours.</h3>
<p>Use the comments section, tweet me at <a href="http://www.twitter.com/davidbauer">@davidbauer</a> or send me a pull request for <a href="https://github.com/davidbauer/writing">this article on Github</a>.</p>

<p>While I've been working on this article, Martin Giesler has had a similar idea and published <a href="http://120sekunden.com/2013/10/journalismus-neu-definieren/">7 sites, people and startups that are pushing the boundaries of journalism</a>. If you speak German, have a look.</p>