CJR's Guide to Online News Startups

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May 20, 2011 12:13 PM
Remapping Debate

An NYC-based site that seeks to throw a wrench in conventional wisdom on public policy
By Isaac Olson
NEW YORK, NEW YORK — Armed with flexible hypotheses rather than fill-in-the-blank assumptions, the public policy focused e-journal Remapping Debate aims to cut through the all-too-common political smokescreen to expose the true motivations behind--and the aftereffects of--top-level decision making, political or otherwise. Be it digging into the true cost of social security or taking a well-rounded look at proposed healthcare reform, Remapping Debate, launched...
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Aug 17, 2011 10:39 AM
Republic Tiger Sports

Extensive sports coverage for a school district in Missouri
By Erik Shilling
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...
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Aug 23, 2012 02:45 PM
Richmond BizSense

An online-only business journal for Virginia's capital
By Brian Patrick Eha
RICHMOND, VA — Not long ago, Richmond, VA was one of the largest US cities without a business journal. That changed on January 1, 2008, the day that local online startup Richmond BizSense ran its first story. The site, which subsists almost entirely on local advertising and claims to have enjoyed three straight years of profitability, combines a web editorial strategy with a...
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Mar 25, 2011 02:41 PM
Rio Grande Guardian

An online-only news source for South Texas
By Justin Yang
MCALLEN, TEXAS — In July of 2005, Steve Taylor and his partner Melinda Barerra sold their Isuzu Rodeo for seed money and launched the first online-only news site in the Texas border region. The site, called the Rio Grande Guardian, bills itself as "the internet newspaper of south Texas," and covers the Rio Grande Valley, which consists of the four counties that make up...
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Jan 9, 2012 12:15 PM
RiverheadLocal

Local news and web advertising for Riverhead, Long Island
By Maura R. O'Connor
RIVERHEAD, NEW YORK — In 2009 Denise Civiletti tried to switch careers, but in the end she came back to journalism. She had taken a job in public relations with a local hospital after working as a publisher and editor for a decade in her hometown of Riverhead in Long Island, New York. Health care, she thought, was a growth industry that would offer better...
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Jul 28, 2011 03:16 PM
Rust Wire

Reporting on urban and social issues in the Rust Belt
By Anthony Badami
CLEVELAND, OHIO — Rust Wire, a collaborative media project which bills itself as "a voice for change in the Industrial Midwest," was founded in 2009 by Angie Schmitt and Kate Giammarise in order to challenge the notion that some economically enfeebled towns in the Midwestern United States "weren't worth saving." The site, which features original reporting and photography, first-person essays, and opinion...
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Mar 25, 2011 02:46 PM
RVANews

Richmond's online-only news source
By Alex Fekula
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA — In 2007, Ross Catrow and Scott Pharr set out to create an online hub where Richmond residents could have access to the increasing number of blogs and hyperlocal sites based in and around the small city. The two had been college roommates who found web-related jobs after school: Catrow worked for the state of Virginia, Pharr for a gold and jewelery wholesaler. The...
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Jan 3, 2011 05:34 PM
Salon

The general interest online magazine has learned to get specific
By Sean Gandert
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — Just because Salon is the oldest general interest publication on the Internet doesn't mean that it's been standing still. Founded in 1995 as a web journalism alternative, producing articles as intelligent and well-written as its peers in print, the website's path has been bumpy, but it is still recognizably the same outlet that first appeared over fifteen years ago. The...
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Dec 1, 2011 04:52 PM
SanFranPreps.com

Exhaustive high school sports reporting for San Francisco
By Erik Shilling
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...
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Jun 3, 2011 11:38 AM
Seattle PostGlobe (Defunct)

Seattle-centric reporting and aggregation, and a place for former Post-Intelligencer staffers to practice their craft
By Alex Fekula
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON — [Editor's Note: The Seattle PostGlobe announced that it would cease publication on July 29, 2011. Sally Deneen, the site's co-founder and news curator (and the journalist interviewed for the profile below), wrote about the decision here. This profile was originally published on June 3, 2011.] When the Seattle Post-Intelligencer laid off nearly all its staff and went online-only in March of...
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Jan 25, 2012 12:56 AM
Sheepshead Bites

Hyperlocal stories by the seaside in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn
By Caitlin Kasunich
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK — Nearly four years ago, the late renowned Brooklyn blogger Robert Guskind pointed out in his coverage of the 2008 Brooklyn Blogfest the pressing need for hyperlocal news sites in the borough's least-covered communities. "While some neighborhoods like Carroll Gardens and Park Slope are written about at length, others, such as Sunset Park and Sheepshead Bay - where...
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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...
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Nov 28, 2011 11:08 AM
Silicon Prairie News

A home on the range for Midwest tech coverage
By Maura R. O'Connor
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...
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May 24, 2011 02:21 PM
Sites Included in the Guide to Online News Startups

So far...
By Michael Meyer
This is a complete, alphabetized list of all the sites currently listed in the CJR's Guide to Online News Startups, formerly known as the News Frontier Database. Although we have completed more than 250 entries, the Guide is still in beta, and will be forever in the sense that we're continuingly adding sites with no intention of stopping. (When the time comes, we'll also be updating the information in existing entries.) The current makeup of the Guide is by...
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Jan 3, 2011 06:03 PM
Slant

Omnivorous pop culture criticism
By Sean Gandert
WEEHAWKEN, NEW JERSEY — Founded in 2001 as an outlet for its editors' frustrations with their day jobs, Slant Magazine began humbly as a two-man online reviewing operation, with Ed Gonzalez writing about film and Sal Cinquemani writing about music. The two covered only a smattering of the biggest releases in each field, but as other writers began volunteering to work for the site,...
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