Subscription-based niche political news from a stockbroker turned political junkie

ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI — Dave Drebes didn't take the most conventional path into journalism. Originally a stockbroker, the St. Louis native decided... More >

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Recently Updated – Originally Posted: Jul 29, 2011
PubliCola (Defunct)

Extensive political coverage for Seattle and Washington state
By Alex Fekula
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON — [UPDATE: On May 9, 2012, PubliCola founding editor Josh Feit told readers that the site, which had made great progress in building an audience, would be shutting down due to "limited and inconsistent" ad revenue. As noted in the profile below, PubliCola had largely relied on angel investors in its first years in operation, and much of the site's potential with advertisers was as yet theoretical when CJR interviewed Feit in July 2011, more than two years...
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Apr 27, 2012 01:03 PM
The American Independent News Network

A nonprofit news network refocusing in a bid for national relevance
By Erik Shilling
WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA — When the American Independent News Network launched nearly six years ago as the Center for Independent Media, its goals were small. The nonprofit news organization was one of several that launched around the same time, including ProPublica, MinnPost.com, and Voice of San Diego, mostly in response to the ebbing fortunes of newspapers and a perceived shortage of investigative journalism. And while now its closest analogue of the three may be ProPublica, AINN started as...
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May 7, 2012 01:46 PM
Eye on Annapolis

Unadorned, up-to-the-minute news for Maryland's capital city
By Maura R. O'Connor
ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND — Eye on Annapolis, a website covering Maryland's Chesapeake Bay and capital city of Annapolis, has forged a pragmatic model for local news coverage, carving out a niche for itself among the city's media by providing readers quick and frequent news updates. The site focuses on breaking news including traffic reports and crime, as well as a community calendar, coverage of local politics, education, business, and columns written by residents. (Check out 16-year-old Fish Stark's smart and savvy...
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Apr 20, 2012 06:22 PM
The Local East Village

NYU student reporting for the NYT
By Maura R. O'Connor
NEW YORK, NEW YORK — In 2009, The New York Times made drastic changes in its approach to local news. The year saw the closure of the papers City section, but also the launch of The Local. A web-based hyperlocal reporting initiative, The Local created two separate sections of nytimes.com: one devoted to the Brooklyn neighborhood of Fort Greene and a second covering the township of Maplewood in Essex county, N.J. Each section was run by a dedicated Times staffer and...
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Recently Updated – Originally Posted: Dec 31, 2010
Slate

The Internet's old guard general interest publication has never slowed down
By Sean Gandert
NEW YORK, NEW YORK — "Slate's overall mission is to create really intelligent, witty, durable web journalism; [that mission] has been more or less the same since 1996," says David Plotz, the site's editor. Slate is perhaps best known as one of the first publications to prove that a high-quality editorial product could exist and thrive online, but it didn't earn that reputation just by mimicking print standards--the site has excelled at leveraging its native medium. No publication bats 1.000,...
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Apr 17, 2012 12:47 PM
Worthit2u.net

Bringing online news to rural Georgia
By Tyler Jones
SYLVESTER, GEORGIA — Matt Medders was too young to be the chairman of the Worth County Commissioners, and Sherry Walls knew it. Although beating the incumbent by 208 votes, Medders was a few months short of meeting the legal requirement that the commissioner for the rural county in southwest Georgia be at least 27 years old. Before she could break the story for the weekly Sylvester Local News, where she worked as a reporter, Medders and the paper's editor approached...
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Recently Updated – Originally Posted: Mar 24, 2011
The Florida Independent (Defunct)

Legislative watchdogging and more
By Chris Benz
TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA — [UPDATE:The Florida Independent was closed by its parent, the American Independent News Network, on April 27, 2011, just before the site's second birthday. CJR's detailed profile of AINN's refocusing on a national audience after shutting down all but one of its state sites can be found here.] Launched in May 2010 with a $352,000 grant from the Knight Foundation, The Florida Independent is the newest member of CEO David Bennahum's American Independent News Network (AINN). There are...
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Recently Updated – Originally Posted: Mar 24, 2011
The Iowa Independent (Defunct)

An early member of the American Independent News Network, all grown up
By Joel Meares
DES MOINES, IOWA — [UPDATE:The Iowa Independent was closed by its parent, the American Independent News Network, in November 2011. Lynda Waddington, the site's last employee, wrote a moving note to readers about the closure, which can be found here. CJR's detailed profile of AINN's refocusing on a national audience after shutting down all but one of its state sites can be found here.] When Jason Hancock joined the Iowa Independent in the summer of 2008, he was part of...
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Apr 23, 2012 12:42 AM
CapitolHillSeattle.com

Hyperlocal news for the city's core of cool
By Patricia Sauthoff
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON — Densely populated and filled with restaurants, nightspots, and shops, Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood is one of the city's hubs of cool. Even those who don't live in the area keep tabs on the neighborhood's comings and goings to see what hot spot will arrive next. Not a bad home for a news website. Enter CapitolHillSeattle.com, a hyperlocal community news outlet founded in 2006 that tracks development, crime, and culture. Started by Justin Carder in his spare...
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Apr 3, 2012 02:28 PM
National Institute on Money in State Politics

Tracking political donations and their influence in all fifty states
By Maura R. O'Connor
HELENA, MONTANA — Edwin Bender believes that building a database is like writing a really good story. "What fascinated me about being a journalist was getting down and taking evidence and saying 'this is what I see,'" says Bender. "When I first started building databases it was like reporting a story. Standardizing names and sorting them, finding out who worked for a bank when they said they were retired. There was a lot of shoe leather reporting." Read more about...
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Recently Updated – Originally Posted: Dec 29, 2010
Capital (New York)

Observer vets hope to "do well by being good"
By Joel Meares
NEW YORK, NEW YORK — When Capital launched in beta in June 2010, it joined an ever-swelling scrum of startups crowding the most covered, and coverable, city on Earth. How did Capital's co-founder Josh Benson, a longtime writer and editor at the New York Observer, hope to break out from the pack? You can find his answer on Capital's About page: "The premise of Capital is that it is possible for a news website to do well by being good."...
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Recently Updated – Originally Posted: Mar 24, 2011
Fayetteville Flyer

A music site that made the leap to general news
By Sam Eifling
FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS — Not long ago Todd Gill and Dustin Bartholomew were part-time musicians working in advertising. In late 2007 they began blogging about the music scene around Fayetteville, Arkansas. Gill saw it as little more than a hobby, but bands, he found, were natural self-promoters, pushing friends and family to read their coverage. Interviewing musicians, reviewing shows, and running a calendar of events led to a small, dedicated readership. They called their site the Fayetteville Flyer. [Profile updated April...
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Mar 29, 2012 02:02 PM
Silicon Bayou News

News for (and by) the New Orleans tech scene
By Evan Simko-Bednarski
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA — In March 2011, Zachary Kupperman, a New Orleans attorney with an interest in tech startups, attended New Orleans Entrepreneur Week, an annual convention of business leaders and entrepreneurs. For Kupperman, co-founder of websites such as PolicyPitch.com, a site where users can submit public policy ideas and track state and local legislation, the convention was an acknowledgment of the strength of the Crescent City's business scene, and a demonstration that those involved had a great deal to...
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Recently Updated – Originally Posted: Jan 4, 2011
I-News

Colorado investigative journalism with statewide import and local impact
By Colin Fleming
DENVER, COLORADO — On December 16, 2010, Laura Frank, the executive director of I-News (formerly known as the Rocky Mountain Investigative News Network), delivered her commencement speech for the University of Colorado's soon-to-be-defunct journalism school. Frank was optimistic about the future of the industry: "I now recognize you actually are embarking on this adventure at one of the most exciting times - perhaps the most exciting time - in the history of journalism and mass communication," she said. "Never have...
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Apr 2, 2012 03:42 PM
Missouri Journal

Government and political news for the Show Me State
By Tom Marcinko
ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI — Corporations are people? Maybe, but Brian R. Hook is both. As owner and sole staff member of the online-only Missouri Journal, he covers Missouri politics with the Show-Me State's well-known skepticism. As a corporation, he is B. R. Hook.com, a media development and consulting firm. "I will be consulting on 'Here's how to do online media,'" Hook says. "But first I have to go out and prove that I can do it." Read more about Missouri...
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