CJR's Guide to Online News Startups
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Results
Organizations filtered by Sponsorships.
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Feb 13, 2012 04:17 PM
ARLnow.com
Community, crime, and culture news for a D.C. suburb
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ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA — Shortly after noon on Aug. 25, 2010, Dimas Pinson was waiting for the Orange Line train at the Virginia Square Metro station in Arlington, Va. when he heard someone shout, "Get off the tracks!" A man suffering from an epileptic seizure had fallen onto the tracks across the platform and was unresponsive. As a train appeared in the tunnel, Pinson, a retired Marine Corps... -
Jun 8, 2011 12:17 PM
Ars Technica
The old guard of tech news, mixing context, the long view, and a sense of humor
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK — Since its founding in 1998, Ars Technica has grown to become a trusted, go-to source for news, reviews, and information about scientific advancements, technological breakthroughs, video gaming, tech policy, gadgetry, software, hardware, and everything in between. However, Ken Fisher, the site's Massachusetts-based founder and editor-in-chief, claims Ars Technica's success as one of the oldest and largest tech-focused websites isn't... -
Jan 13, 2012 11:47 AM
Baltimore Brew
Hard news for Charm City
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BALTIMORE, MARYLAND — After seventeen years as a staff writer and reporter at The Washington Post, Fern Shen opted to take a buyout amid significant downsizing at the paper. But she wanted to stay in the news business, and felt that Baltimore, the city she called home throughout her time at the Post, needed "more journalistic boots on the ground," as well as "something more... -
Mar 20, 2012 01:30 PM
Borderzine.com
Bilingual reporting by Latino college journalists
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EL PASO, TEXAS — Borderzine.com director Zita Arocha founded the site at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) with two goals. "One is to tell the unreported stories of the [U.S.-Mexico] border region, which mainstream media doesn't do very well," says Arocha, a senior lecturer in journalism at UTEP. The second is to create "a pipeline" into the journalism profession... -
May 27, 2011 11:50 AM
Broward Bulldog
Nonprofit investigative journalism for Broward County, Fla.
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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... -
Apr 23, 2012 12:42 AM
CapitolHillSeattle.com
Hyperlocal news for the city's core of cool
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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... -
Jan 28, 2012 01:43 PM
CHARLIE Magazine
Perfecting the local online glossy in Charleston, South Carolina
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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... -
Feb 23, 2012 05:33 PM
Charlottesville Tomorrow
Nonprofit news on growth, development, and local politics
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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... -
Nov 14, 2011 12:34 PM
ChicagoTalks.org
Student-reported, university-based community news
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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... -
Aug 1, 2011 11:53 AM
ClearHealthCosts.com
Guiding consumers through the health care marketplace
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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... -
Sep 19, 2011 12:31 PM
CNET
The tech news and reviews pioneer
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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... -
May 18, 2011 12:59 PM
Crosscut.com
Robust nonprofit local news coverage for Seattle
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SEATTLE, WASHINGTON — David Brewster couldn't have been the only Seattle citizen concerned about the potential demise of one of his local papers, but back in the mid-aughts, he was ahead of the curve. In 2006, Brewster, a thirty-five-year veteran of the local media landscape and the founder of alternative newspaper Seattle Weekly, was phasing out of his role as director of Town Hall Seattle, a... -
May 12, 2011 03:45 PM
CTNewsJunkie
Giving the good stuff to Connecticut's political insiders
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WINDSOR, CONNECTICUT — Like many married couples, Christine Stuart and Doug Hardy share a weekly ritual. Unlike most married couples, theirs involves obsessing over state politics. Stuart and Hardy spend their Thursday nights preparing the "Friday Night Fix." The "Fix" is a weekly e-mail roundup of Connecticut political news, covering everything from the state's most recent budget battle to the fate of a particular piece of... -
May 3, 2011 12:23 PM
DavidsonNews.net
Ambitious local news site for Davidson, N.C.
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DAVIDSON, NORTH CAROLINA — David Boraks, a veteran journalist of thirty years and long-time resident of Davidson, N.C., started DavidsonNews.net after returning from a year abroad in China and Taiwan. Upon returning home, Boraks found that staying updated on current news was not as easy as he had remembered, and so he started an online town newsletter. The newsletter soon evolved into a full-blown... -
Mar 28, 2011 01:43 AM
Education News Colorado
The "paper of record" for Colorado education policymaking
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DENVER, COLORADO — Education News Colorado is an online-only news site devoted exclusively to in-depth coverage of Colorado state education news and policy. The site began operating in its present form in 2008, but can trace its roots back to Headfirst Colorado, a state-wide quarterly print magazine that, until current EdNews publisher Alan Gottlieb came aboard in 2006, would have been more accurately described... -
Oct 24, 2011 11:00 AM
Eleven Warriors
News and commentary on Ohio State football
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PATASKALA, OHIO — Jason Priestas was a lonely Ohio State football fan when he moved to Chicago seven years ago with his wife. He was only a six hour drive from Columbus, but he felt like he was living on the opposite end of the globe. So, in August 2006, he did what many tech-savvy fans do: he started a blog. Five years and several... -
Sep 28, 2011 11:48 AM
Engadget
Tech news the AOL way
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK — Engadget is a one-stop hub for enthusiastic tech consumers, featuring breaking news updates, product reviews, podcasts, multimedia, and more. Light in tone, just edgy enough to amuse but not offend, and often genuinely informative, it's tempting to compare the site to a tech version of Gawker--and, in fact, Engadget was founded in 2004 by Peter Rojas, the tech... -
Dec 13, 2011 11:28 AM
Eugene Daily News
Sports and lifestyle news for Eugene, Oregon
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EUGENE, OREGON — When publisher Kelly Asay and his business partner Jeff Tunnell, the two co-owners of the Eugene Daily News, launched the site in February 2011, they had no journalism experience. The entrepreneurs and video game developers thought their expertise with the Internet and digital media would help them avoid the difficulties that some print, radio, and television news outlets have struggled... -
May 7, 2012 01:46 PM
Eye on Annapolis
Unadorned, up-to-the-minute news for Maryland's capital city
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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... -
Mar 24, 2011 11:39 AM
Fayetteville Flyer
A music site that made the leap to general news
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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... -
Oct 25, 2011 04:50 PM
First Arkansas News
News, musings, and pre-television radio serials
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BENTON, ARKANSAS — "Benton resident. Rogue journalist. Recovering attorney." Scary words if you're a city official caught using public property for campaigning purposes. Just two weeks after launching First Arkansas News, founder Ethan C. Nobles, whose 'about' statement above is brief but bold, broke such a story after filing a Freedom of Information Act request for the e-mail records of Arkansas... -
Feb 3, 2011 05:14 PM
Florida Center for Investigative Reporting
A pioneer bilingual investigative nonprofit
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MIAMI, FLORIDA — When the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting (FCIR) received a $100,000 grant from the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation in September of 2010, it marked the launch of Florida's first nonprofit bilingual online investigative reporting organization. Located at the International Media Center at Florida International University, FCIR is emerging as a leader in investigative news and an innovator... -
Jan 3, 2011 01:35 PM
Gawker
Pioneers of Internet snark branch out toward general interest news
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK— The rise of Gawker has been well-documented. Founded by Nick Denton in 2003 as "the source for daily Manhattan media news and gossip," the site's urbane tone of bemusement in line with the old Spy, coupled with the Internet's ability to feature near-instant commentary on events, turned the site into a quick, widely imitated success. But the current version of... -
Nov 30, 2011 03:19 PM
GazeboNews
News and "stuff" for two affluent Chicago suburbs
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LAKE BLUFF, ILLINOIS — When, in 2006, Adrienne Fawcett moved to Lake Bluff, Illinois, a leafy suburb thirty-five miles north of downtown Chicago, the local news scene was in repose. "I felt the people I was talking to in the community had a better sense of what was going on than the media covering the community," she remembers. At the time, the town of 5,722... -
Jan 4, 2011 05:17 PM
Grist
Irreverent online environmental magazine offers in-depth reporting with "secret sauce"
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SEATTLE, WASHINGTON — Grist is an irreverent online environmental magazine that aggressively courts young readers, ad dollars, and philanthropic backers. Launched in 1999, the publication could be considered an octogenarian in web years, but maintains the tenor of a cheerful young rebel. To celebrate the nonprofit's tenth anniversary, Grist founder and CEO Chip Giller announced a "Screw Earth Day!" campaign, saying "too many people... -
Jan 12, 2012 10:19 AM
GrossePointeToday.com
Nonprofit hyperlocal news in suburban Detroit
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GROSSE POINTE, MICHIGAN — When the 2010 Census was released, it revealed some interesting changes in the metro Detroit community of Grosse Pointe. Whereas in 2000 the non-white population of the area was marginal, in 2010 the percentage of minorities had risen steeply. The number of African Americans living in Grosse Pointe area, for instance, had increased by 300 percent. The online news site <a... -
Jul 26, 2011 08:20 AM
Innovation Trail
Public radio takes to the web to cover upstate New York's transitioning economy
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ROCHESTER, NEW YORK — Fifty years ago the economy of upstate New York was rooted in industry and manufacturing, but in recent decades these sectors have dramatically declined. In the 1980s alone, hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs were lost, according to the Albany Times Union. "Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse were heavy industrial areas," says journalist Juan Vazquez. "A lot of the economy was based on... -
Jul 11, 2011 03:48 PM
Inside Facebook
Data-heavy news and analysis of the Internet's hottest property
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PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA — As the social networking behemoth Facebook shapes the way people think about everything from privacy to public relations, and as rumors continue to circulate about a possible 2012 IPO that could value Facebook at over $100 billion, the site Inside Facebook, which analyzes the company's growth, has become increasingly relevant. Internet media entrepreneur Justin Smith started Inside Facebook in... -
Mar 24, 2011 03:48 PM
Inside the Hall
The go-to site for Hoosier basketball fanatics
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BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA — What began as a couple buddies blogging about their passion for their alma mater has grown into a mecca for fans of Indiana University basketball. Inside the Hall is the perfect web resource for a region known for its devout basketball culture. Started by Alex Bozich, Ryan Corazza, and Eamonn Brennan in 2007 as a hobby, the site soon grew to... -
Oct 31, 2011 03:15 PM
Issue Media Group
A network of feel-good local business news sites
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DETROIT, MICHIGAN — It's been six years since Paul Schutt and Brian Boyle founded Detroit-based Model D, a business news website that orients itself toward the positive side of the job loss-plagued Motor City. The site was the first of what would turn into Issue Media Group, a network of nineteen city-based websites, from Tampa Bay to <a href=http://www.yongestreetmedia.com... -
Jan 19, 2012 03:19 PM
Leimert Park Beat
A hyperlocal news site and social network for a neighborhood in Los Angeles
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LEIMERT PARK, CALIFORNIA — Eddie North-Hager moved to Leimert Park, an 11,000-person neighborhood in Los Angeles, because it was the type of community in which he wanted to raise his family. And yet whenever he read anything about the area in the news, it seemed that he encountered endless versions of the same negative story. "If you would search for things about the neighborhood online,... -
Oct 6, 2011 05:15 PM
MediaStorm
Multimedia outlet meets production house
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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... -
Oct 12, 2011 12:02 PM
My Edmonds News
A burgeoning news source and business in the Seattle suburbs
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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... -
Sep 16, 2011 11:16 AM
MyEugene
Community news and citizen journalism for Oregon's second city
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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... -
Recently Updated: Jun 28, 2011 01:18 PM
New Haven Independent
Connecticut-based leader in nonprofit community news
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NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT — The nonprofit New Haven Independent, which has been delivering serious-minded local news to residents of New Haven, Conn., and the surrounding area since 2005, takes a lot of pride in how it interacts with the community. In fact, the site's editor maintains that its readers are as integral to the editorial process as its reporters. "Our readers do our typos,"... -
May 25, 2011 01:12 PM
New West
News, analysis, and culture reporting for the Rocky Mountain region
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MISSOULA, MONTANA — All over the harsh terrain of the Rocky Mountains, local fears of rampant development burst with the real estate bubble, leaving communities to confront a new enemy: economic stagnation. On the frontier of the struggle is New West, a six-year-old digital guide to news, analysis, and culture for the Rocky Mountain region. Based in Missoula, Montana, and Boulder, Colorado, the company's... -
Oct 24, 2011 11:42 AM
Noozhawk
Reporting (and financing) the news in Santa Barbara, Calif.
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SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA — 2006 was a tumultuous year for news in Santa Barbara. The daily Santa Barbara News-Press was experiencing a very public conflict between the publishers and editorial staff that resulted in waves of resignations and firings--a situation which ultimately led the National Labor Relations Board to find that management committed unfair labor practices after the staff voted to unionize. Four years later,... -
Jan 27, 2012 11:55 AM
NOWCastSA
Multimedia community news for San Antonio, Texas
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SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS — This spring, San Antonio residents will vote on a five-year, $596 million bond package intended to upgrade the city's infrastructure. The package includes 140 projects across the city, such as improvements to parks, sidewalks, and drainage facilities. Until they go to the polls on May 12, citizens who want to learn details about these projects can visit NOWCastSA.com, an... -
Jan 5, 2011 06:00 PM
Oakland Local
Susan Mernit & co. cover their corner of the Bay
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OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA — Born from the community outrage that followed a local police-on-civilian killing caught on cell phone and spread across the Internet, one-year-old Oakland Local hopes to grow its professional reporting in 2011, while keeping its street-level perspective on the sometimes dangerous California port city it covers. Founder Susan Mernit edits and publishes the Local with an editorial staff of eight--none of whom... -
Sep 14, 2011 02:48 PM
Oswego County Today
An early online news source by a mayor-turned-newsman
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FULTON, NEW YORK — When Mayor Don Bullard lost his bid for re-election as chief executive of the small city of Fulton, N.Y. in 1998, he and three members of his city hall team set out in search of a way to continue working for their community. In the waning years of the last millennium, online news was still a young industry, but the former... -
Jul 18, 2011 11:55 AM
paidContent
Covering the business of digital media since 2002
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK — In 2008, when Guardian News & Media bought Rafat Ali's ContentNext Media, Ali wrote that the acquisition marked the "2.0 phase" of his company. It was an aptly webby phrase from the man who six years earlier founded ContentNext's flagship site, paidContent.org, with the aim of obsessively covering the economics of the then just-emerging world... -
Mar 1, 2012 10:37 AM
Patch
AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK —In February 2009, South Orange, Maplewood, and Milburn-Short Hills, three small but relatively affluent New Jersey communities, became the first towns to host a local Patch site, launching a network that has since grown to include more than 860 sites in twenty-two states and Washington, D.C. Because of its rapid expansion and the accompanying media scrutiny, Patch has played a central... -
Feb 24, 2012 11:29 AM
Patch (California)
AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network
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California is a place for experimentation for Patch, as it extends its coverage to two large communities there: the military and their families, and the Latino population. The network's first attempt at a "Patch Military" site is Camp Pendleton Patch; while it is not sponsored by the Marine Corps base, it is run by a former US Marine. Meanwhile, the first three "Patch... -
Feb 24, 2012 11:50 AM
Patch (Connecticut)
AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network
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Connecticut was the second state to host a Patch site. The network came to the state just after launching in New Jersey and just before expansion into New York. The state's first Patch launched in the summer of 2009 in the southern town of New Canaan. It has since expanded to include 62 sites covering towns across the state. CTWatchdog.com, a... -
Feb 24, 2012 12:04 PM
Patch (District of Columbia)
AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network
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The nation's capital is home to just one Patch. The site covers the ritzy neighborhood of Georgetown, which is home to the university of the same name. The site includes coverage of university news and events, developments on the ever-pressing issues of real estate and traffic, and an ongoing "Best-of" debate about Georgetown's most desirable cocktails. Though Georgetown Patch is alone... -
Feb 24, 2012 12:35 PM
Patch (Florida)
AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network
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Patch expanded into Florida in late 2010, and currently has nineteen sites in the state. As an early state in the 2012 GOP primary and a battleground state in the general election, Florida fits nicely with Patch editor-in-chief Brian Farnham's goal (discussed with CJR last year) to involve Patch in 2012 election coverage, and with AOL's goal to cash in on political ad... -
Feb 24, 2012 12:47 PM
Patch (Georgia)
AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network
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Patch moved to Georgia in 2010, and has since rolled out forty-three sites in the state. Some sites focus on entire cities, such as Athens or Marietta, while others stick to the Atlanta suburbs--a more common model for Patch sites nationwide. Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here. Patch has launched more than 860 sites in... -
Feb 24, 2012 12:54 PM
Patch (Illinois)
AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network
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Illinois has one of the larger collections of Patch sites-fifty-nine in all. Not surprisingly, the sites are most prevalent in the Chicago suburbs. The state also includes two universities contributing to coverage through the "PatchU" program: Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and the Columbia College Chicago Journalism Department. Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here. Patch has launched more than... -
Feb 24, 2012 01:00 PM
Patch (Iowa)
AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network
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Iowa is currently home to nine Patch sites, with one more launching soon. These nine sites were part of a push to populate Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina with Patches in time for the 2012 Republican primary/caucus season. Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here. Patch has launched more than 860 sites in twenty-two states plus the District... -
Feb 24, 2012 01:06 PM
Patch (Maryland)
AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network
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A relatively small state geographically, Maryland is home to a huge number of Patch sites. There are currently fifty-two live sites, with more in the works. Home to both Baltimore and D.C. suburbs, the state is a prime spot for Patch's strategy of targeting affluent, technologically savvy communities. Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here. Patch has launched more than 860... -
Feb 24, 2012 01:11 PM
Patch (Massachusetts)
AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network
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Patch brought its business to Massachusetts in early 2010, launching sites in coverage in Marlborough, Sudbury, Wellesley, Newton, Quincy, Belmont, Bedford, Milton, Needham and Concord. Among its competitors at the time were CentralMassNews.com, and a host of print newspapers that also maintained online presences. Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here. Patch has launched... -
Feb 24, 2012 01:17 PM
Patch (Michigan)
AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network
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Patch expanded into Michigan in 2010 as part of a push that included several other Midwestern states. The network has since launched a total of twenty-nine sites in the Great Lakes State, many in the Detroit suburbs.] Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here. Patch has launched more than 860 sites in twenty-two states plus the District of Columbia.... -
Feb 24, 2012 01:22 PM
Patch (Minnesota)
AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network
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Patch expanded into Minnesota in 2010 as part of a push that included several other Midwestern states. There are currently twenty-five individual Patch sites in Minnesota. Although sites are concentrated around the Twin Cities, coverage areas vary from urban areas like Southwest Minneapolis to suburbs like Richfield to slightly farther flung towns like Northfield. Read CJR's full... -
Feb 24, 2012 01:27 PM
Patch (Missouri)
AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network
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Patch expanded into Missouri in 2010 as part of a push that included several other Midwestern states. There are currently twenty-four individual Patch sites in Missouri, and the Missouri School of Journalism contributes to coverage of the state as part of the PatchU program. Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here. Patch has launched more than 860... -
Feb 24, 2012 12:14 PM
Patch (New Hampshire)
AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network
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Patch launched in New Hampshire in June of 2011 in anticipation of the 2012 presidential election primaries. As Arianna Huffington, president of AOL Huffington Post Media Group, remarked, the expansion would put Patch "squarely on the front lines of the presidential campaign." Patch's initial New Hampshire launch consisted of ten communities: Amherst, Bedford, Concord, Exeter, Hampton-North Hampton, Merrimack, Nashua, Portsmouth, Salem, and Windham.... -
Feb 24, 2012 12:20 PM
Patch (New Jersey)
AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network
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The Patch network's first sites were launched in New Jersey in September of 2009, in the cities of Maplewood, Millburn-Short Hills, and South Orange. Today, Patch operates sites in more than 80 New Jersey communities. New Jersey remains a "petri dish" for Patch to develop business ideas and strategies. In December 2011, Patch merged two sites together after concluding that the... -
Feb 24, 2012 12:28 PM
Patch (New York)
AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network
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After the first three Patch sites launched in suburban New Jersey in 2009, an expansion into New York's Westchester County and Long Island communities wasn't far behind that same year. Today, New York is home to seventy-one Patch sites and counting. In addition to Patch's usual suburban targets, the network has also grown to include individual, geographically small but highly populated neighborhoods within the boroughs... -
Feb 24, 2012 12:22 PM
Patch (North Carolina)
AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network
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Patch currently has only one site in North Carolina. It serves the community of active duty soldiers, civilians, and Army families stationed at Fort Bragg, which is located north of Fayetteville. The base spreads across four counties and has a population of around 40,000, according to the 2010 U.S. census. The site launched in June 2011. AOL announced the launch of... -
Feb 24, 2012 12:26 PM
Patch (Ohio)
AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network
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Patch arrived in Ohio in 2010, launching twenty-four sites. According to a December 2010 story in Crain's Cleveland Business, the first three sites appeared in the Cleveland area, and Jean Dubail, former online editor of Cleveland's Plain Dealer, served as a regional editor during the launch. Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here. Patch has launched more than 860... -
Feb 24, 2012 12:33 PM
Patch (Pennsylvania)
AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network
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In 2010, Patch launched twelve community sites in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, a densely populated area on the eastern edge of the state formerly propped up by the steel and manufacturing industries, and now making the transition into the tech sector. Since then, the Patch network in Pennsylvania has grown extensively, to fifty-nine sites, and includes large clusters of sites in the suburbs of Philadelphia and... -
Feb 24, 2012 12:45 PM
Patch (Rhode Island)
AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network
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Patch came to Rhode Island in October 2010, launching in Newport, Middletown, and Portsmouth after the Newport Daily News ended free access to its website. A month later, Patch launched in eighteen more communities. Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here. Patch has launched more than 860 sites in twenty-two states... -
Feb 24, 2012 12:43 PM
Patch (South Carolina)
AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network
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Patch arrived in South Carolina in June 2011 with an initial launch of four sites serving Charleston-area communities with populations ranging from 15,000 to 100,000 people. There are currently eleven Patch sites in the state. Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here. Patch has launched more than 860 sites in twenty-two states plus the District of Columbia. For more... -
Mar 1, 2012 01:29 AM
Patch (Virginia)
AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network
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The Old Dominion is home to thirty-one Patch sites in all, but the sites are not evenly spread out through the state, geographically speaking. The overwhelming majority of Virginia's Patches are located in the fast-growing, affluent and tech-savvy Washington, D.C. suburban neighborhoods in and around Fairfax County, in the northeast tip of the state. Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here.... -
Feb 24, 2012 12:56 PM
Patch (Washington State)
AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network
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Patch launched in Washington state in October 2010, its first site focusing on University Place in Pierce County, near Tacoma. Patch later rolled out a total of fourteen sites in the tech-savvy state, concentrating on the Tacoma and Seattle areas. Read CJR's full profile of the Patch network here. Patch has launched more than 860 sites in twenty-two states... -
Feb 24, 2012 12:59 PM
Patch (Wisconsin)
AOL's fast-growing hyperlocal network
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The Patch network in Wisconsin consists of sixteen sites, all of which are concentrated around Milwaukee with the exception of Hudson Patch, which is more than 300 miles away, near Minneapolis-St. Paul. Fortunately for Patch, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel announced in late 2011 that it would be putting its website behind a paywall, opening the door for potential traffic... -
Oct 31, 2011 01:49 PM
Pegasus News
News, entertainment, and local information for the Dallas-Fort Worth area
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RICHARDSON, TEXAS — Pegasus News was made to cover an event like the state fair of Texas. Both are large-scale, interactive, and can fry something up for everyone. Over 2.5 million people attend the fair each year, the largest in the country, and from the end of September to the event's conclusion three weeks later, Pegasus News adds a special homepage tab directing... -
Dec 29, 2010 04:40 PM
Pitchfork
The prolific online music reviewer/kingmaker
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CHICAGO, IL — Founded in 1995 as an Internet alternative to traditional music fanzines, Pitchfork has become a force within the music industry every bit as vital as Rolling Stone or Spin. While somewhat controversial due to its highly opinionated reviews, Pitchfork has a reputation for being able to spot new talent and bring them to a much wider audience. Bands such... -
Oct 31, 2011 11:46 AM
Plunderbund
Ohio state politics from a progressive point of view
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HAMILTON, OHIO — Like many political news sites, Plunderbund was born out of frustration. Ohio-based writer Eric Vessels had been disengaged from politics for years, but when President Bush was reelected in 2004, his apathy transformed into anger. "I realized I hadn't been an active part of doing anything to make the country go in the direction I wanted it to," says Vessels.... -
Jan 5, 2011 07:36 PM
Politico
The site that defined the twenty-four-hour news cycle
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WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA — On the night of the November 2010 midterms, as election results began trickling in, team Politico held a returns-watching gala at Washington, D.C.'s Newseum. It was the kind of lavish media event usually reserved for legacy media outlets--the Washington City Paper called the party "a throwback to the days when media companies actually made money... There... -
Jan 21, 2011 03:25 PM
Portland Afoot
Portland-based transportation advocacy
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PORTLAND, OREGON — In a culture where the car is often the primary mode of transportation, the web/print hybrid Portland Afoot has set out to inform Portland citizens about the wide world of transportation alternatives. After leaving his job as a reporter for The Columbian in Vancouver, Wash., founder Michael Andersen felt that he could attract a devoted audience for a new journalism venture... -
Oct 11, 2011 10:00 AM
Progress Illinois
A labor-backed site providing original news and analysis beyond the mainstream
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CHICAGO, ILLINOIS — While the genesis of Progress Illinois dates back to 2006, the left-leaning news and commentary site officially launched in March 2008, riding a wave of national interest in Illinois politics propelled by then-senator Barack Obama's unlikely bid for the presidency. The spotlight on Illinois intensified further that year with ex-governor Rod Blagojevich's descent from up-and-coming progressive politician to perpetual punch... -
Jul 29, 2011 01:42 AM
PubliCola
Extensive political coverage for Seattle and Washington state
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SEATTLE, WASHINGTON — [UPDATE: After briefly ceasing operations in May 2012 due to "limited and inconsistent" ad revenue, Publicola was purchased in mid-June 2012 by SagaCity Media, owner of the Seattle Metropolitan magazine and other properties, for an undisclosed sum. The new web publication is called PubliCola at SeattleMet. Popular features like "Morning Fizz," "Afternoon Jolt," and and "ThinkTank" continue to be published,... -
Aug 17, 2011 10:39 AM
Republic Tiger Sports
Extensive sports coverage for a school district in Missouri
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REPUBLIC, MISSOURI — For David Brazeal, the owner, writer, videographer, sole advertising salesman, and occasional play-by-play man for Republic Tiger Sports, his website, which is devoted to the athletic pursuits of the Republic R-III School District, has been a labor of love--but it's also quickly evolved into a fledgling business enterprise. As an alumnus of Republic High School, Brazeal, forty-one, has long had... -
Dec 1, 2011 04:52 PM
SanFranPreps.com
Exhaustive high school sports reporting for San Francisco
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SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — Like more than a few newspapermen before him, Jeremy Balan was less than impressed with the play many of the stories from his beat--high school sports--were getting in the newspaper. When Balan moved to San Francisco in 2009, he was even more disappointed, but this time with everyone else. After years of cutbacks, the San Francisco Chronicle had reduced its high... -
Mar 29, 2012 02:02 PM
Silicon Bayou News
News for (and by) the New Orleans tech scene
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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... -
Nov 28, 2011 11:08 AM
Silicon Prairie News
A home on the range for Midwest tech coverage
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OMAHA, NEBRASKA — In the summer of 2008, Jeff Slobotski was working for the sales team of a technology company in New York City but living in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska. During his travels around the country for work, he kept getting asked, "What's going on in Omaha?" Slobotski knew that, contrary to popular belief, there was a lot going on in Omaha, including... -
Dec 31, 2010 12:24 AM
Slate
The Internet's old guard general interest publication has never slowed down
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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... -
Dec 31, 2010 12:51 AM
Small Wars Journal
An information hub and blogging network for some of the biggest names in military thought
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WASHINGTON, DISTRICT of COLUMBIA — Although it's right to call Small Wars Journal a niche publication, doing so misrepresents the site's true influence. "Small wars," as the site uses it, is a kind of catch-all term for counter-insurgency, counter-terrorism, and other pervasive features of the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although SWJ may have the narrow readership of a trade or academic journal,... -
Nov 11, 2011 11:30 AM
StarkvilleNow.com
Local news and aggregation for a college town in Mississippi
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STARKVILLE, MISSISSIPPI — As the results of the 2009 Starkville municipal elections rolled in, Robbie Coblentz waited in city hall and posted the results in real time via iPhone to the Twitter feed of his local news site, Starkville Now. Not long after, he was contacted by the nearby Tupelo, Miss. Daily Journal and the Columbus, Miss. Commercial Dispatch, wondering just how Coblentz... -
Jan 5, 2011 06:08 PM
Streetsblog
Public transportation reporters/advocates in NYC, DC, LA, and SF
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK — Transport-obsessed site Streetsblog--which focuses on everything from bike lines to subway fare hikes--was born, appropriately, in transport-obsessed New York City. Originally launched in 2006 by Aaron Naparstek, it has since branched out to cover transportation in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. Streetsblog has its origins in the advocacy movement, focusing on local... -
May 17, 2011 11:51 AM
Summit County Citizens Voice
Local news and environment coverage for Summit County, Colo.
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FRISCO, COLORADO — The day Bob Berwyn of the Summit County Citizens Voice was scheduled to be interviewed by CJR, he had to beg off due to what is apparently a not uncommon event when reporting from Summit County, Colo., home of famed ski resorts like Vail and Breckenridge. "I just got called to a search and rescue," he wrote via e-mail. "Lost snowmobiler. Prob... -
Dec 12, 2011 12:09 PM
TBD
D.C. arts, culture, and events listings from a once-anointed champion of the local web
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ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA — When Washington, DC-area website TBD launched in August of 2010, it was supposed to shake up the entire media landscape. A local news website with the backing of multiple local television stations and a major legacy media brand, it would combine new media aggregation and reporting methods with old media resources. Politico parent company Allbritton had committed five years of... -
Dec 30, 2010 02:23 PM
TechCrunch
The tech startup news news startup
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SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — From the very beginning, TechCrunch was part and parcel with Web 2.0. Founded by Michael Arrington in 2005, the site began as a personal technology blog but rapidly transitioned into a full-scale publication, drawing in millions of page views a month by the end of 2007. Unlike most of his peers, Arrington didn't come from a journalistic background, instead studying... -
May 2, 2011 04:17 PM
Technically Philly
Detailed coverage of the Philadelphia tech scene
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PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA — Like so many young journalism school graduates, Sean Blanda, Brian James Kirk, and Christopher Wink could not find jobs in 2008. Philadelphia's two dailies had shed hundreds of positions, and plenty of highly experienced older reporters were ready to apply for anything that opened up. The job market was, "in a word, awful," says Blanda. "The three of us felt like we... -
Jan 4, 2011 04:37 PM
The Awl
NYC-based cultural witticism from two Gawker alumni
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK — The team at New York City-based The Awl has some advice for anybody waiting on some seed funding to launch their dream startup: don't wait. The Awl launched in early 2009 when founders Choire Sicha, Alex Balk, and David Cho set out to start their own site with little-to-no financing beyond their personal savings. It wasn't much, but "there... -
Oct 27, 2011 02:56 PM
The Bay Citizen
Local civic journalism in the national spotlight
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SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — [UPDATE: In May 2012, the Bay Citizen merged with the Center for Investigative Reporting, the oldest nonprofit investigative news organization in the United States and the parent of state-level investigative nonprofit California Watch. The merger allowed the organizations to expand their reporting resources, save money, and diversify their funding base. The merger brought together 75... -
Mar 31, 2011 11:40 AM
The Bold Italic
Gannett's bold move in consumer-oriented journalism
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SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — The Bold Italic is an experiment. Slickly designed but still in "beta," the Gannett-owned San Francisco website has an image-heavy layout, an alt-weekly feel, and a focus on helping its readers find new places to spend their free time. "It's not meant to replace anything" in the San Francisco print media, says Michael Maness, who, as Gannett's vice president of... -
May 25, 2011 01:04 PM
The Connecticut Mirror
Former Courant staffers step up to fill the state's hard news gap
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HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT — A tiny, talented, maybe-a-bit-too-earnest team of ex-Hartford Courant staffers is trying to plug the glaring gaps in Connecticut's political coverage at CT Mirror, a sober-minded news startup that chases the sorts of in-depth, investigative political stories that the state's depleted legacy news organizations no longer have the resources to pursue. Working from the state capitol since January 2010, the nonprofit, non-partisan,... -
Oct 24, 2011 11:24 AM
The Faster Times
Creative revenue earning from an online publication/writers' collective
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK — For a twenty-eight dollar "membership" in The Faster Times, you can get a critique of your dating profile by the publication's sex and dating expert, Meghan Pleticha. For $500, you can get a one-hour fencing lesson from Ken Mondschein, a research scholar at the Higgins Armory Museum in Worcester, Massachusetts, who writes about the politics... -
Dec 14, 2011 02:12 PM
The Heavy Table
Food journalism and criticism for the upper Midwest
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MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA — Food journalism is reaching a zenith of popularity and cool. Scores of people tune in to watch Anthony Bourdain search the world for something to eat. The New York Times's food critic leaves his post and readers across the country speculate over replacements. But the tide of foodie attention has also brought us endless comment chains on Yelp!, countless half-hearted blogs, and... -
Jan 5, 2011 08:23 PM
The Huffington Post
The online news behemoth grows up
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK — As of the writing of this profile, the "BIG NEWS" header at the top of The Huffington Post's homepage reads: "Unemployment, Katie Holmes, Natalie Portman, Health, Lindsay Lohan, Smarter Ideas, More..." It's the mix of topics that might be floating around the head of a conscientious, politically astute fifteen year old--but given that HuffPost only recently entered the second... -
Oct 24, 2011 04:57 PM
The Ithaca Independent
One man among the gorges
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ITHACA, NEW YORK — The major daily paper of Ithaca, N.Y., the Ithaca Journal, is, like eighty-two other daily papers in America, part of the Gannett chain. Over the last decade or so, Ithaca resident Ed Sutherland, who writes business news for computer blog Cult of Mac, started to notice a change in the paper. Over time, much of the content in the... -
Dec 15, 2011 11:32 AM
The Lo-Down
News for New York's Lower East Side
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK — When husband and wife Ed Litvak and Traven Rice started The Lo-Down, a hyperlocal news site reporting on Manhattan's Lower East Side, it wasn't with the intention of creating a business. Litvak, a television news producer, and Rice, a filmmaker, took the site live in January 2009 after two years living in the neighborhood, and thought of it... -
Apr 20, 2012 06:22 PM
The Local East Village
NYU student reporting for the NYT
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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... -
Jun 30, 2011 11:50 AM
The Los Angeles Review of Books
A book review section for a post-print age
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LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA — Tom Lutz, nonfiction author and creative writing professor, offers a startling statistic about the book business on his new website: "twenty times as many titles are published each year than were in 1980, and we have one twentieth of the serious book reviews." The Los Angeles Review of Books, an online magazine launched by Lutz in April 2011, is his... -
Mar 24, 2011 04:42 PM
The Post (Defunct)
Social media gurus of South Dakota
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SIOUX FALLS, SOUTH DAKOTA — [Editor's note: The Post ceased publication in July 2011. A note on the site in late 2011 and early 2012 promised a relaunch, but it never materialized. The site is down, but was last captured by the Internet Archive in February 2012.] The Post, a story co-op site in which a team of volunteers and staff create... -
Dec 31, 2010 01:06 AM
The Root
A strong online presence for the African American press
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WASHINGTON, DISTRICT of COLUMBIA — Founded in 2008, The Root continues a long tradition of black-perspective journalism in America, reporting on social, cultural, and political issues through an African American lens. With the Quincy Jones-founded Vibe folding in 2009 before its rebirth as a quarterly, and Essence and others toughing it out in a shrinking magazine market, there's been a... -
Jan 4, 2011 05:48 PM
The Texas Tribune
Political reporting and investigations for the Lone Star State
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AUSTIN, TEXAS — The Texas Tribune, which writer Jake Batsell profiled for CJR in July 2010, focuses on state politics, government, and investigative reporting, and prides itself on finding innovative ways of presenting the news to an increasingly expanding audience. The nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization has helped redefine online journalism and extended its goals of civic engagement far beyond the Internet. ... -
Mar 24, 2011 11:50 AM
TucsonSentinel.com
Continuing an underdog media legacy in Tucson
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TUCSON, ARIZONA — After a 138-year run, the Tucson Citizen, a daily that reported on such historic events as the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, closed its doors in May of 2009. Dylan Smith, the Citizen's online editor, was among the many journalists displaced by the paper's disbanding. Not content to let the Arizona Daily Star claim victory in Tucson's newspaper war, Smith undertook what... -
Jun 7, 2011 11:27 AM
Twin Cities Daily Planet
Citizen-powered local news for Minneapolis and St. Paul
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MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA — The Twin Cities Daily Planet focuses on a combination of neighborhood-level news and coverage of progressive, social justice-related issues in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. But it wants to be more than just a news-gathering operation. The Daily Planet is just as committed to creating journalists--or, perhaps more accurately, citizens who engage with their communities through journalism--as it is to publishing them,... -
Mar 24, 2011 03:16 PM
UtahPolicy.com
Political news for Beehive State political insiders
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SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH — For an example of how to deliver a massive amount of information with minimal manpower, look no further than UtahPolicy.com. Founded in 2004, the site is a news aggregator, but it also aggregates politicians' press releases, pdfs of proposed legislation, and other original materials. All of this is leavened with a dash of original reporting and analysis. <!-- OPEN... -
Jan 5, 2011 05:30 PM
voiceofsandiego.org
A nonprofit news innovator in Southern California
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SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA — Exposing the darker side of a sunny beach city, the six-year-old news site Voice of San Diego is having a larger influence than its small size might suggest. With 170,000 unique visitors a month, the nationally renowned nonprofit has an annual budget of $1.2 million (mostly from grants), a slim staff of fifteen, and a content-sharing deal with NBC... -
Mar 25, 2011 03:09 AM
VTDigger.org
Deep coverage for the Green Mountain State
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MONTPELIER, VERMONT — As the name suggests, VTDigger (pronounced "V.T. Digger," not "Vermont Digger") aims to provide deep coverage of local issues in the Green Mountain State. "I wanted to follow stories in-depth," explains Anne Galloway, the publication's editor-in-chief. "Not all of our stories are investigative; but we want them all to go deep." While it's not all hard-hitting political stories--the day after Christmas, Digger... -
Apr 17, 2012 12:47 PM
Worthit2u.net
Bringing online news to rural Georgia
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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... -
Oct 31, 2011 02:26 PM
YubaNet
Online news stretching the Sierras
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NEVADA CITY, CALIFORNIA — "The legacy media don't see this area as a market," says Pascale Fusshoeller, editor and co-founder of YubaNet in Nevada City, California. When looking at a map of the Sierra Nevada, one can understand why. The Range of Light, as John Muir described it, stretches 400 sparsely populated miles along California's Central Valley, containing the...
CJR's Guide to Online News Startups
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Editor's Spotlight On...
Startups covering high school sports
- Republic Tiger Sports Extensive sports coverage for a school district in Missouri
- San Fran Preps Exhaustive high school sports reporting for San Francisco
- Yadkin Valley Sports High school sports news for eighteen schools in central North Carolina
Startups covering state politics
- The Arizona Guardian Niche political news for a state everyone's watching
- Quorum Report A pioneer in niche online coverage, reporting on Texas politics since 1998
- CTNewsJunkie Giving the good stuff to Connecticut's political insiders
Startups run by married couples
Recent CJR.org posts about the future of news
The News Frontier
- Hello to Symbolia New iPad-only comics journalism magazine launches today
- The Kickstarter Chronicles Fiction, in serialized and small forms
- The Kickstarter Chronicles Beauty pageants for seniors and case law books for zombies
- The Kickstarter Chronicles A few words to the wise
- ICYMI: tweet chats Building a community 140 characters at a time
- CJR Audio: investing in local news startups Talking shop with investor/ publishers Alice Rogoff (Alaska Dispatch) and Vincent LoVoi (This Land Press)
- The Kickstarter Chronicles Printing the Internet and updating an office
- The Kickstarter Chronicles Punching up community radio in Iowa and punching out Mike Tyson in 8 bits
