Disappeared News: A journalism model by and for the journalists

Friday, June 04, 2010

A journalism model by and for the journalists

by Larry Geller

(… and what does this have to do with nude housecleaning? Skip to the end to find out.)

Would you believe a news website raising funds where 70% of the membership donation goes to your favorite writer?

I’ve mentioned The Faster Times before. Check them out (any organization with an address on Prospect Park West in Brooklyn is worth checking out in my book).

They are offering membership incentives that are interesting enough, including a stay in a Hawaii condo, a personalized erotic story, subscriptions to the New Yorker, and more. Here’s a snip (there’s more, see link above):

The Faster Times is a collective of journalists and writers from around the world who are trying to find a new way to make a newspaper work. There are no millionaires — or non-millionaires, come to think of it — funding us. We’re doing this because we believe in it. Your membership fees will make it possible for us to spend much more time reporting and breaking important stories.
…
Your membership payment is also a vote for the writing and reporting you enjoy most. When you sign up, you’ll have a chance to choose a favorite writer on the The Faster Times. That writer will receive 70 percent of the earnings.

I enjoy the website. It’s certainly eclectic. You can tell that this is going to be a sports story:

It is a time of bad calls. Israel made a bad call this week when it took the bait and violently boarded a flotilla headed for the Gaza Strip. British Petroleum has continued its series of bad calls in an ineffective effort to plug the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. And perhaps worst of all, umpire Jim Joyce made a bad call in ruling a baserunner ’safe’ with two outs in the 9th inning, costing Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game.

Today’s articles: Sports, social media, relationships, white fright in Arizona, AT&T iPad bait-and-switch, the growing popularity of nude housecleaning services, and hard news. An important experiment to watch. (and I thought you’d like to have the link to that particular story).