Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Site explores new news model
What is a crowdsourced news article?
It is a news article that the public has asked be written, and is funded entirely by donations.
As traditional media models grapple with the changing landscape brought about by the Internet, corporate consolidation and changing reader habits, some are experimenting with other methods to provide news.
On its website, Coverthis. news offers itself as an alternative and cites a recent Knight Foundation report, “The Expanding News Desert,” noting:
• The United States has lost almost 1,800 papers since 2004, including more than 60 dailies and 1,700 weeklies.
• There are almost 200 of the 3,143 counties in the United States without any paper.
Under the model now being explored by CoverThis. news, citizens can begin a campaign to get a story covered.
This is how the site describes the process by which an article is published:
A citizen has an interest in a certain news story being covered.He/she goes to coverthis.news to create a campaign to get that story covered.They fill out basic info and then launch the campaign.CoverThis sets the goal of basic stories costing $750 to create.The campaign creator and CoverThis spread the word — seeking backers for the project.All backers are listed publicly, along with the amount spent, so that there is complete transparency behind how a story came to fruition.Once the story reaches its goal, the story is assigned to a writer/researcher.Within 4 weeks, the story is in its first form — Version 1.Version 1 one is shared with the original backer and written feedback is solicited. The original backer is essentially the executive producer of the content.The writer incorporates some or all of the feedback (based on feasibility and budget) and creates Version 2.The original backer then reviews it one more time — but can only ask to add a preface to the article to elucidate the topic or provide context.The story then launches on coverthis. news.Along with the story, the journalist publishes all of his/her materials and sources. This is done so future authors, researchers and, in general, for the public record, can reuse existing, corroborated facts.
Other stories now seeking funding include: “How many schools in Chester
County had lockdowns in 2019?” and; “How much money did West Chester Borough raise in 2019 in parking tickets? How much came from West Chester University?”
For the article on town halls, both researchers made contributions to help get the story published.
Chris Dima, who is the founder of CoverThis, donated $100 (one of only two donations that large). All total, people with the last name of Dima, gave a total of $145 to get this story published.
Austin Gomberg donated $10. Most donations were in the $10 to $25 range.