Famous Journalists?

Would a Kickstarter type site for journalists work?

• I have been lamenting the demise of newspapers, downsizing of investigative journalism in all media and the increasing corporatization of news. I had the idea for a Kickstarter type site for journalists.  If they were well trusted and known journalists, say a Matt Taibbi, they could probably get money for their project without giving away many, if any details.  Nonjournalists could also start a campaign to raise money to hire a journalist to investigate a certain topic or story. I haven't fleshed this out, but I guess once the money was collected, journalists could apply for the gig and donors could vote for the journalists. Donors would get as many votes as dollars they donated or get one vote no matter the donation size.  I haven't thought all details through. Journalists would also have pages listing their interests, past experience and publications so that potential donors could make a more informed donation. I know one of the drawbacks would be tipping off the prospective investigative target.  I think the only way to overcome this would be for a journalist to be well respected enough that he/she could give few details and get money on reputation and past reporting alone.  Could a campaign be started funding rewards for whistleblowers  whose information is helpful and true? Example could be asking for people with direct information of medicare fraud over $10 million dollars.  Maybe we could team whistleblowers with journalists. Would it be possible to protect the whistleblowers' identities? I would love input from others on the viability of this idea or other funding ideas for supporting independent investigative journalists and whistleblowers

• Answer:

  There is at least one crowdfunding platform for journalist seeking funding to cover stories that I'm aware of. The name escapes my memory but I came across one last year (assuming it's still operational). There are a few crowdfunding platforms to facilitate self publishing books. All in all it's a neat idea to take crowdfunding to this niche. I'm not sure that in the long run it's financially viable for entrepreneurs to operate platforms for a narrower market (sadly, it's probably not, as most niche websites aren't). The incumbents in the crowdfunding space (KS, IGG...) also host these kind of projects so many will be tempted to go with them.