CJR's Guide to Online News Startups

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Feb 23, 2011 06:32 PM
Honolulu Civil Beat

A journalistic "civic square"
By Alex Fekula
HONOLULU, HAWAII — Honolulu Civil Beat is the brainchild of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and former eBay exec Randy Ching, both of whom attended high school in the Aloha State. The pair shared a common goal, in Omidyar's words, of "empowering citizens and encouraging greater civic participation through media." In keeping with this mission, they envisioned a site that considered audience participation to...
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Jan 4, 2011 01:59 PM
I-News

Colorado investigative journalism with statewide import and local impact
By Colin Fleming
DENVER, COLORADO — On December 16, 2010, Laura Frank, the executive director of I-News (formerly known as the Rocky Mountain Investigative News Network), delivered her commencement speech for the University of Colorado's soon-to-be-defunct journalism school. Frank was optimistic about the future of the industry: "I now recognize you actually are embarking on this adventure at one of the most exciting times - perhaps...
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Jan 5, 2011 04:06 PM
IGN

The web's definitive video game press
By Sean Gandert
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — IGN, which began in 1996 as just another video game site in a flood of similar sites with a similar voice, has become one of the behemoths of Internet journalism, with over 13 million unique visitors a month and a staff size rivaling that of many newspapers. Its success is a model for how a Web site can tap a...
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Jan 3, 2011 04:54 PM
indieWIRE

Independent film news for fans, filmmakers, and insiders
By Sean Gandert
NEW YORK, NEW YORK — IndieWIRE is a daily news site and online resource that covers all aspects of specialty and independent film. Founded in 1996, the site is known for its dogged coverage of film festivals around the world and its efforts to support the independent filmmaking community itself. The site's multifaceted approach to film coverage has earned it a following among fans...
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Feb 3, 2012 04:54 PM
InMaricopa

Online community news for an Arizona town damaged by the housing crisis
By Tom Marcinko
MARICOPA, ARIZONA — When the InMaricopa website launched in 2004, the once-small town of Maricopa, Ariz. was in the midst of a massive population boom. With families seeking cheaper housing outside of Phoenix, the former nineteenth-century mail stop on the Gila River went from 1,000 residents in 2000 to 40,000 in 2010. In 2006, housing prices began to level off, two years...
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Mar 11, 2011 11:11 AM
Inner City Press

A one-man show reporting on the United Nations
By Armin Rosen
NEW YORK, NEW YORK — Every weekday at noon, a spokesperson for the United Nations briefs the media in the auditorium at the Dag Hammarskjold library, just adjacent to the world body's towering Secretariat building in New York. And every weekday, Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press is there, asking about topics that no other member of the press corps will touch. His...
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Jul 26, 2011 08:20 AM
Innovation Trail

Public radio takes to the web to cover upstate New York's transitioning economy
By Maura R. O'Connor
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...
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Jul 11, 2011 03:48 PM
Inside Facebook

Data-heavy news and analysis of the Internet's hottest property
By Arvin Temkar
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...
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Mar 24, 2011 03:48 PM
Inside the Hall

The go-to site for Hoosier basketball fanatics
By Connor Boals
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...
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Oct 24, 2011 07:04 PM
InsideClimate News

Environment news and investigations
By Alysia Santo
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK — After experimenting with a variety of quick-hit approaches to environmental coverage, a four-year-old online news startup focused on climate change is moving in a slower, more involved reportorial direction. Originally launched in 2007 as SolveClimate News, the site announced on September 6, 2011 that it had hired an executive editor, Susan White, and changed its name to InsideClimate...
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Apr 5, 2011 01:06 PM
Intersections South Los Angeles

USC students report on their neighboring communities
By David Downs
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA — When conservative Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly needs a sparring partner on immigration issues, his producers occasionally turn to a totally under-the-radar nonprofit news site, Intersections South Los Angeles. The two-year-old site, a hybrid of hyperlocal reporting and user-generated news, runs on grant and university funds and operates out of the University of Southern California. Editor-in-chief Willa Seidenberg, a journalism...
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Jan 5, 2011 04:26 PM
InvestigateWest

Investigative journalism for the Pacific Northwest
By Colin Fleming
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON — Seattle's InvestigateWest may have a small budget and a tiny newsroom--but the organization's impact consistently belies its size. Founded in 2009, the small investigative nonprofit led by former Seattle Post-Intelligencer staffer Rita Hibbard has emerged as a major player in regional journalism, reporting on everything from chronic homelessness to the widespread poisoning of children by rat poison....
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Jan 4, 2011 02:10 PM
Investigative Newsource

Investigative journalism for San Diego and beyond
By Colin Fleming
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA — Investigative editor Lorie Hearn does it all. She runs the business, raises the funds, edits the stories, does the books, and dusts the office. She even brings the bagels and cream cheese. Hearn, a former editor for the San Diego Union-Tribune, now leads Investigate Newsource, formerly known as The Watchdog Institute, a three-person nonprofit investigative outlet run out of San...
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Jan 3, 2011 06:21 PM
Investigative Reporting Workshop

Multimedia reporting in a university setting
By Colin Fleming
WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA — American University's Investigative Reporting Workshop is one of sixteen university-based investigative journalism centers, but the only one in the nation's capital. Founded in 2008 by Charles Lewis and Wendell Cochran, both veteran journalists and professors at the university, the Workshop produces original reporting and mentors the next generation of investigative journalists. This dual mandate creates a unique newsroom; undergraduate...
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Oct 31, 2011 03:15 PM
Issue Media Group

A network of feel-good local business news sites
By Erik Shilling
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...
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