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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Mar 11, 2011 03:51 PM
Lexington Commons

A voice for Lexington's nonprofit organizations
By Georgia Schoonmaker
LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY — The tagline on the Lexington Commons homepage defines the site as "The Voice of Lexington," which is quite appropriate, considering it is written entirely by volunteer citizens of the city and its surrounding suburbs. Because of this, all of the stories featured have a very personal feel. Much of the site's content deals with the local nonprofit sector--"Celebrating Nonprofit Organizations and Volunteers!", a permanent banner headline on the homepage blares--but local government and business also get considerable...
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Jan 5, 2011 07:50 PM
LiveScience

Science news at light speed
By Brett Norman
NEW YORK, NEW YORK — LiveScience cranks out a high-volume mix of newsy and fun science curios in its efforts to chase after the fickle attentions of Internet wayfarers. Readers are voting approval with their clicks--an impressive three million-plus uniques per month--and the site, with a full-time editorial staff of five, has the relatively rare distinction of being profitable. As part of a rapidly expanding parent company, TechMediaNetwork, which includes about ten targeted news sites (as of January 2011)...
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Nov 7, 2011 03:26 PM
LocallyGrownNews.com

A network of news sites devoted to local food coverage
By Maura R. O'Connor
ELON, NORTH CAROLINA — Journalist Michelle Ferrier has been involved in creating online communities for over ten years, and was the editor of MytopiaCafe.com, a now-defunct hyperlocal news offering by the Daytona Beach News-Journal. Although MytopiaCafe gained a devoted following of 3,000 users, Ferrier argued in a 2009 piece for Poynter that the site was doomed from the beginning. In retrospect, Ferrier felt that the site tried to chew more than it could swallow--it should have started with a smaller...
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Jul 13, 2011 12:54 PM
LymeLine

Hyperlocal news for two small Connecticut towns
By Mike Madden
OLD LYME, CONNECTICUT — Founded in 2003 by veteran publisher Jack Turner and now headed by news editor Olwen Logan, LymeLine had the humble beginnings one might expect for a site that covers two towns (Lyme and Old Lyme) with a combined population of fewer than 10,000. When Turner first decided to venture into the world of online journalism, paperless news had yet to catch on in small town Connecticut. "We updated daily, but [traffic] was very slow. Nobody went...
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Jan 4, 2011 01:20 PM
Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting

Filling the reporting gap in Maine's state capital
By Colin Fleming
HALLOWELL, MAINE — As the number of reporters covering Maine state government dropped from twenty in 1989 to fewer than ten today, a wife-and-husband duo, two old-school reporters, stepped up. In 2010, Naomi Schalit, a former reporter and producer at Maine Public Radio, and John Christie, former president and publisher of Central Maine Newspapers, launched the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, a watchdog for all things shady in the state capitol. Read more about Maine Center for Public Interest...
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Oct 6, 2011 05:15 PM
MediaStorm

Multimedia outlet meets production house
By Lauren Kirchner
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK — Above the cobblestone streets of Brooklyn's DUMBO neighborhood, the producers, engineers, and cinematographers of MediaStorm are producing some of the most arresting and moving stories online today. While side-stepping the news cycle in favor of more timeless features, their particular brand of multimedia narrative is attracting online viewers from 170 countries around the globe. It has also helped the company remain self-sustaining and profitable since its current iteration launched in 2005. Read more about MediaStorm The...
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May 26, 2011 04:06 PM
Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting

A one-man investigative unit in the heartland
By Joel Meares
PRAIRIE VILLAGE, KANSAS — If you head to the "leadership" page of the website for the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting you will see profiles of an impressively large Board of Directors. There are professors and consultants and attorneys, all smiling into camera alongside slabs of striking qualifications. Under the heading "staff," though, you will find just one name: Mike Sherry. Sherry, who began the site in July 2010, is the sole employer and employee for the MCIR, a watchdog...
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Feb 2, 2012 02:47 PM
Milford Live

Hyperlocal news for a small town in Delaware
By David Riedel
MILFORD, DELAWARE — Dave Burris and Bryan Shupe grew up in Milford, Del., and later crossed paths while working on Republican campaigns. Burris had experience running a digital lifestyle magazine called Coastal Sussex Weekly and wanted to start a hyperlocal news site for Milford. He thought Shupe, who had become disillusioned by the negativity in politics and was ready to move on, would be the right choice to run it with him. Read more about Milford Live With an eye...
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Jan 5, 2011 04:53 PM
MinnPost

The Twin Cities startup is seeking loyal readers for hard news
By Chris Benz
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA — Harvard's Nieman Journalism Lab calls MinnPost founder Joel Kramer "one of the brightest stars in the news-startup firmament." The former editor and publisher of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Kramer started his nonprofit in 2007 with a rolodex of veteran journalists to whom he offered freelance work, and $1.2 million dollars in commitments from foundations and private donors. This was only a year's worth of funding, half of what Kramer wanted to raise, but he decided not to...
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Mar 28, 2012 12:23 PM
Mint Press News

A privately financed international news startup in Minnesota
By Leah Binkovitz
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA — The coming of Mint Press was noted all over the journalism jobs boards. Touting its independent status and dedication to honest reporting, the site seemed to advertise for a new position every day: staff reporters, California and D.C. correspondents, and associate editors. Many of these positions remain open. Mint Press currently claims five staff writers and three paid writing interns; an editor-in-training; two "contributors"; and a New York correspondent, Lisa Barron, a veteran journalist who spent fourteen...
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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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May 9, 2012 02:13 PM
Missouri Scout

Subscription-based niche political news from a stockbroker turned political junkie
By Jason Rosenbaum
ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI — Dave Drebes didn't take the most conventional path into journalism. Originally a stockbroker, the St. Louis native decided to jump into newspaper publishing in 2001. Drebes and a friend wrote several articles and opinion pieces about the flaws in the St. Louis Board of Aldermen's contentious, racially charged redistricting plans. They printed the articles on a broadsheet and sent the publication to about 100 people. (The redistricting process went on as planned, Drebes says, costing one...
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Oct 12, 2011 12:02 PM
My Edmonds News

A burgeoning news source and business in the Seattle suburbs
By Caitlin Kasunich
EDMONDS, WASHINGTON — Since graduating from Seattle University in 1979 with a journalism degree, Teresa Wippel's career has veered in and out of journalism, but she hopes that she's back in the fourth estate for good now. She started out working as a community newspaper reporter for a chain of Seattle-area weeklies and a small daily paper in Port Angeles, Wash., before becoming a staff writer for United Press International. She later became the managing editor of Seattle's ParentMap Magazine,...
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Sep 16, 2011 11:16 AM
MyEugene

Community news and citizen journalism for Oregon's second city
By Leah Binkovitz
EUGENE, OREGON — Consider MyEugene your full-service hyperlocal news site in the second largest city in Oregon. If you're new to town and want to know where to buy dog food or recycle Styrofoam, just ask Jaculynn Peterson, MyEugene's founder and editor. Like many of MyEugene's readers, Peterson is not native to Eugene or the West Coast. But when she moved there in 2007, looking for something new to do after a career in corporate communications, she found the potential...
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Oct 31, 2011 01:52 PM
MyVeronaNJ.com

Wide-ranging hyperlocal news for a New York City suburb
By Caitlin Kasunich
VERONA, NEW JERSEY — Editor Virginia Citrano has worked at the intersection of journalism and technology for nearly three decades. In 1983, she was hired by the Wall Street Journal/Europe, an early innovator in the use of computers in the newsroom. She got her hands on her first news website in 1995, as an assistant managing editor at Crain's New York Business. From 2000 to 2006, she ran the day-to-day operations of Forbes.com. In the fall of 2009, Citrano and...
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