CJR's Guide to Online News Startups

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BUSSUM, NETHERLANDS — Two Dutch guys met at a party in Amsterdam. A month later, they had a magazine. Jochem Wijnands, who... More >

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May 27, 2011 11:50 AM
Broward Bulldog

Nonprofit investigative journalism for Broward County, Fla.
By Joel Meares
FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA — Few states have been hit so hard by the newspaper downturn as Florida. In 2009, The South Florida Sun-Sentinel cut 20 percent of its staff. The same year, McClatchy's Miami Herald cut nearly 200 jobs and stopped distributing its international edition in South America and the Caribbean. Then, in 2011, the paper killed another fifteen jobs and announced it would not fill thirty-five open positions. Two hundred St. Petersburg Times employees took early retirement in...
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Jan 11, 2012 04:06 PM
Brown Line Media

An independently owned network of three sites reporting on Chicago's North Side
By Ian Fullerton
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS — Though he writes a vast majority of the posts on his flagship news site, Center Square Journal, Mike Fourcher prefers the title of publisher over journalist. "That's an important distinction," he says. "I do employ journalists... but the person that runs a baseball bat company is not a carpenter." A native Chicagoan, Fourcher launched Center Square in early 2010, after some soul-searching following a decade-plus spent working in political lobbying and business consulting in different cities across...
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Dec 5, 2011 11:54 AM
Brownstoner

Covering (and riding) Brooklyn's real estate wave
By Maura R. O'Connor
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK — In 2004, a number of forces inspired Jonathan Butler to launch popular Brooklyn-based website Brownstoner.com. He was working at a hedge fund in Manhattan, a job that was losing its luster for him. A self-described real estate junkie, he had just submerged himself in the city's market for months and finally purchased a brownstone house in a quickly gentrifying neighborhood called Clinton Hill in Brooklyn. And he was a big fan of blogs like Curbed and...
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Sep 13, 2011 11:23 AM
Buffalo Rising

A grassroots print startup hits its stride online
By Paige Rentz
BUFFALO, NEW YORK — The mission of Buffalo Rising is embedded in its very name. A decade ago, as Elmwood Avenue shop owner Newell Nussbaumer began to witness a resurgence in his native city, he saw grassroots movements growing and activists who needed a voice. He sought to provide that with Buffalo Rising, first a tri-annual and later a monthly print product, and then finally a blog to supplement it online. But the blog took off, and Nussbaumer, along with...
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Oct 25, 2011 11:54 AM
Burnt Orange Report

A political news blog's move from undergraduate pursuit to progressive stalwart
By Tyler Jones
AUSTIN, TEXAS — In 2002, Republicans gained control of the Texas state legislature for the first time in over a century, allowing then-congressman Tom DeLay a chance to push for an unprecedented voter redistricting that would give Texas Republicans a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. With few progressive watchdogs online in the Lone Star State, undergraduate students at the University of Texas stepped up to publish Burnt Orange Report. The site tracked the redistricting controversy from day one...
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Mar 24, 2011 11:59 AM
Calbuzz

No-holds-barred political analysis
By Joel Meares
APTOS, CALIFORNIA — At political news and analysis website CalBuzz, newly elected California governor Jerry Brown is known simply as "Krusty." His high-spending Republican opponent in the 2010 gubernatorial election, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, is "eMeg." And so, while most Californians still got their earnest doses of 2010 election news from papers like the Los Angeles Times, The Sacramento Bee, and the San Francisco Chronicle, as well as from the local legacy TV and radio stations, a tuned-in slice...
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Feb 1, 2012 04:52 PM
CalCoast News

Investigations and other news for California's Central Coast
By Chasen Marshall
SAN LUIS OBISPO, CALIFORNIA — With major newspapers cutting investigative departments around the country, including along the Central Coast of California, Karen Velie and Dan Blackburn were concerned that major stories would go uncovered. In late 2007, the pair of veteran newspaper reporters launched their own online outlet focused on just the type of journalism they felt was lacking--hard news and investigations. Initially, Velie and Blackburn launched as Uncovered SLO (San Luis Obispo), an online-only news site, but the...
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Feb 7, 2012 12:22 PM
California HealthCare Foundation Center for Health Reporting

A health newswire for the California press
By Maura R. O'Connor
ALHAMBRA, CALIFORNIA — The California HealthCare Foundation's Center for Health Reporting aims to produce investigative journalism "without an agenda" and publish these stories in various print, broadcast, and web news outlets across the state. Acting as an independent news organization located at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, the center, founded in 2009, runs CenterforHealthReporting.org, where visitors can explore the dozens of stories and series produced by the center's journalism team. Read more about California...
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Dec 30, 2010 02:09 PM
California Watch

A watchdog for the Golden State
By Colin Fleming
BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA — In less than two years, California Watch has become a force in American journalism, distributing its content to over eighty different publications and operating with the biggest investigative team in the state. Launched in 2009 as a facet of the Center for Investigative Reporting, California Watch dedicates itself to "high-impact reporting" on health, education, ecology, politics, and public safety. Read more about California Watch In one of its recent projects, reporters Joanna Lin and Mandy Hofmockel investigated...
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Mar 24, 2011 11:55 AM
CapeCodTODAY.com

A hyperlocal (and entrepreneurial) news pioneer
By Dohini Patel
CAPE COD, MASSACHUSETTS — CapeCodToday, one of the first hyperlocal news websites in the nation, and reports on all things Cape Cod. Topics the site covers include politics, arts and culture, business, education, and sports. Walter Brooks, founder of CapeCodToday, is a veteran journalist with over half a century of experience. Prior to establishing the site, Brooks wrote for The Village Voice, the New York Post, and The Cape Codder, a weekly newspaper in the area. Beginning in the mid-1990s,...
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Recently Updated: Dec 29, 2010 03:47 PM
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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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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Mar 25, 2011 01:38 PM
CaryCitizen

Proud proponents of upbeat hyperlocal news
By Victoria Rau
CARY, NORTH CAROLINA — Founder and publisher Hal Goodtree knew he was onto something with CaryCitizen when The New York Times referenced his coverage of the arrest of a local terrorism suspect on his site's third day of existence. Although the town had a local newspaper, The Cary News, its coverage focused on other towns in addition to Cary, and Goodtree felt that he could fill a niche by creating a news site with an upbeat and Cary-centric voice. Looking...
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Jan 5, 2011 06:54 PM
Center For Investigative Reporting

Old-school investigative nonprofit takes to the web
By Colin Fleming
BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA — In the world of American investigative nonprofits, the Center for Investigative Reporting is the oldest and one of the best recognized. Founded in 1977 by a small group of investigative reporters, CIR has grown considerably since, amassing numerous awards. It now employs a full-time staff of twenty and works with an annual budget of over $4 million. CIR has broken stories ranging from the degeneration of the Black Panther Party into a criminal gang to the problems...
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Jan 28, 2012 01:43 PM
CHARLIE Magazine

Perfecting the local online glossy in Charleston, South Carolina
By Chris Benz
CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA — "When you start something, what your role ends up being is quite different than what you imagined it to be," says Caroline Nuttall, founder of CHARLIE, a local culture magazine based in Charleston, South Carolina. Originally a publicist, Nuttall founded the website in 2009, and expanded it successfully to a niche market, profitability, and a part-time staff of about sixteen paid freelancers. Along the way, she deftly treaded the tightrope between adapting to opportunity and steely...
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