It was, as Andy Carvin later described it, a baptism by fire. Less than 48 hours after the launch of reported.ly, Carvin’s social news startup within First Look Media, the outfit began seeing reports of an attack on the Paris office of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. It was the type of story for which reported.ly was built, one playing out in real-time and with too many sources of information — or misinformation — to count.
Reported.ly is not your father’s news organization; not only because it’s wary of reporting in an authoritative voice of God, but also because it gathers and publishes strictly on social channels, primarily Twitter. It doesn’t even have a website. The premise underlying the operation is that news should be brought straight to social users, who Carvin sees as underserved communities — along with a primary source of information. “I jokingly refer to what we do as native journalism; it’s flipping everything on its head,” he said by phone Thursday.
The six-person team monitors more than 200 Twitter lists, among countless other posts on social media, to spot breaking news around the world. Staff members use geolocation and other verification techniques to try to confirm what’s happening, and let readers know if they cannot. On Wednesday, mere minutes after the first reports of the shooting — and before most mainstream outlets had tweeted about the attack at all — a reported.ly staffer found and shared a video from the scene.
Culling information from local media reports and nearby social users, reported.ly shared hundreds of tweets, photos, videos, and Reddit and Facebook posts over the next two days, staying one step ahead of most other English-language outlets, online or on-air. Much of the social reporting was aggregated into seven Storify’s, garnering more than 28,000 views as of Friday afternoon.
“We’re almost like news anchors in the way we publish on these platforms, but with the barrier between anchor and public removed,” Carvin said. “We’re engaging people directly, we’re responding to questions, we’re asking for help. Rather than a social media wire service, we’re an open, transparent newsroom across a variety of platforms.”
Spread from California to Greece, Carvin’s band of social sleuths, what he described as a “dream team,” produced clear-eyed coverage of the Charlie Hebdo tragedy and aftermath. But it was merely a single story in the outlet’s first week of action — not to mention one that played to its strengths. It’s yet to be seen how the nascent organization will cover day-to-day news that doesn’t similarly draw the eyes of the world. What’s more, it’s unclear whether the lack of a website will create increased publishing flexibility, a headache for archiving and searching, or both.
Yet the venture is an important step for a news industry still grappling with how to best utilize social-media tools, especially on breaking news. Journalists and news organizations have indeed integrated social reporting into their more traditional repertoires, though few have made it a primary mission. Reported.ly’s successes and failures will likely serve as a guide for less-nimble counterparts on how to cover the seemingly infinite confines of the social Web. What it learns about audience engagement and potential revenue streams, meanwhile, could shed light on how to monetize it. Luckily for Carvin & Co., First Look Media, the parent company of the Glenn Greenwald-led Intercept and the stillborn financial publication Racket, is well-financed and inclined to experiment.
@acarvin @reportedly That's totally fascinating – and a luxury @pierre can afford. @jayrosen_nyu
— Jason Pontin (@jason_pontin) January 5, 2015
@jason_pontin @acarvin Well, if @pierre is serious about building news tools for $, then maybe @reportedly is a necessity: a test kitchen.
— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) January 5, 2015
@jayrosen_nyu @jason_pontin well, I wouldn’t call us a luxury. Small team, small budget, focusing on experimenting on social platforms.
— Andy Carvin (@acarvin) January 5, 2015
@jason_pontin @acarvin @jayrosen_nyu key word "experimenting." That is luxury. But no shame in it. Somebody's gotta try it.
— David Cohn (@Digidave) January 5, 2015
Here we should disclose that CJR gets funding from Pierre Omidyar, founder of First Look Media, via his philanthropic Democracy Fund.
First Look is working on some iteration of a website as a repository for reported.ly’s cross-platform coverage. An infrastructure for archiving content is also in the works.
Carvin, known for his theory on, and application of, Twitter as an interactive newsroom, told CJR that his team intends both to start discussions on social media and inject itself into discussions already in progress. “Rumors spread on Twitter every single day,” he said. “Newsrooms either ignore them or wait till they’re confirmed by other outlets.” Reported.ly, for example, would have tried to tap the brakes in Reddit threads that misidentified the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, he added. It will inquire about users’ sourcing in real-time in the hope of staving off digital witch hunts.
A spokeswoman for First Look Media declined to comment on the company’s revenue plans for reported.ly, as it’s “very early.” Carvin said experimentation with different business models will come down the road.
“For the time being,” he added, “they’re allowing us journalists to be journalists.”
David Uberti is a writer in New York. He was previously a media reporter for Gizmodo Media Group and a staff writer for CJR. Follow him on Twitter @DavidUberti.