[LINK] UNCOVERAGE

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

This site was launched yesterday. It's a bit wobbly, but seems a great idea

http://uncoverage.com
http://uncoverage.com/stories/filter/popular


UNCOVERAGE

The news is broken. Let's fix it.

Investigative journalism - the immune system of a functioning democracy - 
is broken.

Today, the news isn’t working for us. It's working for advertising dollars. 

In a hyper-competitive advertising environment, the news is under intense 
pressure to create stories that will quickly and efficiently get attention 
from the public. 

This business model drowns out the kind of hard-hitting, deeply researched 
journalism that keeps us safe. Now, it's the more inexpensive content like 
opinion, news, celebrity, and syndicated stories. 

We have all seen what the result looks like: hundreds of journalists laid 
off; Miley Cyrus on the front page; and an overall steep decline in the 
balance of stories that uncover new information meant to help us, not just 
attract us. 

But it doesn't have to be this way. 

We believe that the public should be in control. 

Why shouldn't you be able to decide that investigations and stories need to 
happen on the issues that matter? 

Uncoverage is a platform designed to democratize patronage for 
investigative journalism. 

We are going to give the public a new and powerful voice by making it 
possible for them to fund the topics that matter, by the journalists on the 
front lines, without having to to be billionaires. 

We have already invested eight months and all our savings into this 
platform. Now, we need to raise the remaining funds to launch the 
platform's alpha.

Uncoverage is a connector between journalists who believe in revealing new 
information in the public interest, and backers like you who can make 
investigations and stories happen.

Journalists with proven track records will be vetted into the platform. 

Approved journalists will associate themselves with topics they believe in, 
and work with topic editors to craft pitches and stories for the site.

Journalists may post their news pitches with relevant content, such as 
videos and photographs, plus their budget needed to deliver a completed 
story, and then YOU choose to back the journalists, pitches, and topics you 
want to see investigated and published.

There is no paywall. Stories produced in the public interest should be 
available to everyone. The stories belong to the journalists, not to us. We 
are here to help make them happen. We will work closely with freelancers 
and nonprofit and some for-profit news organizations. 

The Center for Public Integrity is going to be a launch partner, and we 
cannot wait to start backing some of their investigations!

Cheers,
Stephen

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