CJR's Guide to Online News Startups

ACEsTooHigh.com

Reporting on the science, education, and policy surrounding childhood trauma

WINTERS, CA — In 1998, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the results of one of the largest studies ever... More >

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Recently Updated: 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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Feb 23, 2012 05:33 PM
Charlottesville Tomorrow

Nonprofit news on growth, development, and local politics
By Caitlin Kasunich
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA — Although Charlottesville Tomorrow publishes a new story almost every day and has a close partnership with the local newspaper, it wasn't supposed to turn out that way. In early 2005, its founders simply wanted to launch a website that citizens could visit for objective, nonpartisan information on growth, development and local politics. "We set out to just be a community organization providing information and helping people learn about who was running for office, what they stood for,...
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Jun 20, 2012 12:52 PM
Chicago Phoenix

Chicago LGBT media goes digital (and grows up)
By Ian Fullerton
CHICAGO, IL — Gay media in Chicago has struggled in its search for identity. In recent years, two of the city's most prominent LGBT publications, Gay Chicago Magazine and the Chicago Free Press, shut down after transitioning from the traditional "bar rag" format, with content centered on entertainment and sex culture, to a more issue-related news and features focus. Some observers speculated that revenue problems and infighting caused both papers' closings, but others guessed that neither readers nor advertisers had...
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Nov 14, 2011 12:34 PM
ChicagoTalks.org

Student-reported, university-based community news
By Ian Fullerton
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS — Shortly after launching what is now ChicagoTalks.org in 2006, Barbara Iverson realized that the project's original vision of enlisting citizen journalists to cover neighborhood beats just wasn't materializing. Originally pitched as a "meta-placelog" that would cover news in all fifty of the city's wards, the site received its initial funding from the school and through a grant from the start-up catalyst J-Lab. As part of the project, then dubbed "Creating Community Connections," Iverson and co-founder Suzanne McBride,...
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Aug 1, 2011 11:53 AM
ClearHealthCosts.com

Guiding consumers through the health care marketplace
By Maura R. O'Connor
PELHAM, NEW YORK — Jeanne Pinder had a storied career in print journalism: she was born into a newspaper family and spent twenty-three years at The New York Times. But today Pinder is venturing into new territory by founding a start-up website that aims to bring transparency and accountability to the health care marketplace. ClearHealthCosts.com was launched in beta form by Pinder in January 2011--with a redesign in June--and is attracting around 200 visitors a day so far, offering them...
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Sep 19, 2011 12:31 PM
CNET

The tech news and reviews pioneer
By Evan MacDonald
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — Looking for the latest news on Dell or Hewlett-Packard, or trying to figure out whether to buy yourself an Apple iPad or one of its competitors in the tablet category? If you are, there's a good chance you're going to end up on CNET. CNET is a technology news website that offers tech product reviews, news, price comparisons, free software downloads, daily videos, and podcasts. Founded in 1992, it made its first splash in 1994 with...
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Jan 28, 2012 01:39 PM
Colorado Public News

Health care coverage for Centennial State newspapers and television stations
By Alex Fekula
DENVER, COLORADO — With layoffs at the Denver Post and the closing of the Rocky Mountain News in 2009, few places have lost as much reporting talent in recent years as the Mile High City. Ann Imse, a former reporter for the Rocky who had previously worked as a correspondent for the Associated Press during the collapse of the Soviet Union, saw the writing on the wall earlier than some. "At least five years ago, a number of journalists started...
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Mar 24, 2011 03:31 PM
Columbus Underground

Entertainment and events coverage with a civic bent
By Connor Boals
COLUMBUS, OHIO — Launched in 2001, Columbus Underground was founding editor Walker Evans's answer to a lack of online resources for Columbus's nightlife scene. A devoted fan of his city, Evans grew the site from a social calendar to a resource that helps the local community stay informed on just about everything Ohio's capital city has to offer. With 2.1 million visits and 8.5 million page views in 2010, the site has seen nothing but growth in a climate that...
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Jul 21, 2011 05:46 PM
Common Language Project

In-depth human rights reporting and multimedia storytelling
By Connor Boals
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON —In 2005, three friends on their way to becoming freshly anointed college grads had an idea. They were budding journalists with global ambitions who didn't want to sit on their hands while foreign coverage in American newspapers continued to fade. The three, Sarah Stuteville, Alex Stonehill, and Jessica Partnow, decided to take a trip to about a dozen countries in Southeast Asia and the Middle East in 2006. The trip was funded through personal savings and credit cards--perhaps...
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Jan 26, 2012 01:55 PM
Connecticut Health Investigative Team

Far-reaching niche investigations for the Nutmeg State
By Maura R. O'Connor
NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT — In 2010, award-winning journalist Lisa Chedekel published a story detailing how more than a dozen Connecticut doctors who had been sanctioned in other states for illegal or substandard practices were able to practice freely in Connecticut. She found that Connecticut rarely took action against doctors, even when their licenses had been censured in other states. When published in December 2010, Chedekel's story drew wide attention. The Hartford Courant, the state's largest newspaper, published an editorial on...
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Jan 30, 2012 03:48 PM
Connecticut Watchdog

Hard-hitting consumer protection reporting
By Chris Benz
EAST LONGMEADOW, MASSACHUSETTS — The best businesses have a compelling origin story, and George Gombossy's consumer protection website, Connecticut Watchdog, started with a doozy. As of 2009, Gombossy had worked at the Hartford Courant for forty-one years: first as a reporter, then business editor, then as "The Watchdog," a consumer protection columnist. His picture hung on the side of "every bus in Hartford" and his mug smiled from billboards. But, in short: the Tribune Company bought the Courant and installed...
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Feb 6, 2012 03:36 PM
Corona del Mar Today

A one-woman news operation for a wealthy Newport Beach, Calif. neighborhood
By David Riedel
CORONA DEL MAR, CALIFORNIA — When former newspaper reporter Amy Senk decided to get back into journalism, she wasn't sure how to begin. "When I was reporting, we barely had Internet or e-mail," she says. Senk left her job at the Contra Costa Times in the mid-1990s and focused on raising a family. When her husband was diagnosed with an aggressive blood cancer in late 2006, Senk considered that she might need to provide health insurance for her family if...
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Dec 8, 2011 04:11 PM
CountyNewsLIVE.com

A fast-growing news network for rural Missouri
By Caitlin Kasunich
HERMANN, MISSOURI — Although the homepage of Gasconade County's CountyNewsLIVE.com has the look and feel of a simple, straightforward blog, it is actually the first of three frequently updated Missouri-based hyperlocal news websites founded by writer and publisher Jeff Noedel. Launched in March 2008, the Gasconade County site primarily covers rural Hermann, Missouri, a small agricultural town that attracts tourists with its nearby wineries and a German heritage museum. Three years after the Gasconade site launched, Noedel decided to create...
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Feb 20, 2012 01:54 PM
Cronkite News

Arizona State University's student-reported website and news wire
By Tom Marcinko
PHOENIX, ARIZONA — Student journalists now learning their trade by filing stories for Cronkite News were born long after Walter Cronkite (1916-2009) signed off the CBS Evening News in 1981. A part of Arizona State University's Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications, Cronkite News publishes news by student journalists on its own website, and produces stories for the Associated Press, McClatchy-Tribune News Service, and about thirty newspapers in Arizona, including the Arizona Republic. Most stories have an Arizona angle,...
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