by Jacqueline Koch | Aug 21, 2015 |
The journalism category on the crowdfunding website Kickstarter offers unique insight into the new ideas in journalism readers are willing to put their own hard earned money behind. It also reveals a new class of journalist entrepreneurs who are stepping outside the confines of mainstream publications to create their own content businesses focusing on the topics they care about most. It is not entirely clear which will survive in our attention deficit age, but it is illuminating to see which ideas readers are rooting for.
Here is a quick tour of successful past projects and a few new projects that are hoping to get your attention and your money.
Top funded journalism projects
In late 2012, 2,566 backers pledged $140,201 to bring Matter to life, the most ever pledged to a Kickstarter journalism campaign. People responded to the promise by founders Bobbie Johnson and Jim Giles to bring them ‘the story you’ve been missing’. Matter specializes in long-form articles about science, technology, medicine and the environment and was acquired in April 2013 by Medium, a new publishing platform established by Twitter founder Ev Williams.
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by Jacqueline Koch | Aug 17, 2015 |
By Gretchen McLaurin
Twenty-two years ago, in 1993, Bill Clinton was beginning his first term as President of the USA, 60 Minutes was still the in-depth television show we turned to for news and politics, and the first “smartphone” was born (the IBM Simon).
By 2002, the BlackBerry had displaced pagers to become the most essential business tool for ensuring ready availability and access to people and information. However, it wasn’t until the release of Apple’s iPhone in 2007 that most of us truly began to understand the potential for mobile information and the untethering of our electronic lives.
Those who are still wondering whether the mobile revolution is worth fighting for should consider that this year, 70 per cent of the US population actively uses the internet and 70 per cent of them do it via mobile devices. While the first smartphone is now a museum relic, smartphones are more essential than ever in delivering information and facilitating engagement.
What does that have to do with politics? Today, there are 23 candidates hoping to compete in the USA’s 2016 Presidential Election, all of whom are trying to find new ways to connect with and convince ever-distracted voters.
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by Jacqueline Koch | Aug 7, 2015 |
In a world of short attention spans, the idea that you could have someone’s attention for the 50 minutes they spend in their car each day is very appealing. So it’s easy to see why the concept of a connected car is very attractive to auto-manufacturers looking to create new revenue streams, software developers looking to build in-car applications and advertisers looking for new opportunities to reach consumers.
What is not entirely clear yet is what applications will consumers embrace, what are the most promising opportunities for content providers to deliver digital content to vehicles, and who will be the winners in this burgeoning ecosystem.
SNS Research just released a report in which they estimate that by 2020, connected car services will account for nearly US$40 billion in annual revenue. This growth is driven by a host of applications, including infotainment, navigation, fleet management, remote diagnostics, automatic crash notification, enhanced safety, UBI (Usage Based Insurance), traffic management and even autonomous driving.
The journalism category on the crowdfunding website Kickstarter offers unique insight into the new ideas in journalism readers are willing to put their own hard earned money behind. It also reveals a new class of journalist entrepreneurs who are stepping outside the confines of mainstream publications to create their own content businesses focusing on the topics they care about most. It is not entirely clear which will survive in our attention deficit age, but it is illuminating to see which ideas readers are rooting for.
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