Forefront: Nonprofit media organization
Next American City ceased printing its quarterly publication this year after a near-decade run. Despite this seeming blow to the written word, the Philadelphia-based institution remains committed to its original mission and will continue to commission pieces about major city issues—but now, that content will be published exclusively online. New digital publication
Forefront will feature a single piece of long-form journalism each week, available to subscribers (for a fee of $1.49/month) or for individual purchase (for $1.99/article). This clever
curated approach is sure to win fans for its carefully wrought reportage of key issues, not to mention its very reasonable price point.
Matter: As
avid Radiolab-listeners and regular contributors to
open science collaborations, “
study-dropping” Gen Ys have demonstrated their enduring science-mindedness. Recent
Kickstarter project
Matter proved the extent of this devotion, surpassing its goal of $50K by nearly threefold—after
meeting its goal in a mere 38 hours. A joint effort by writer
Jim Giles and
GigaOM editor
Bobbie Johnson, Matter promises readers once-weekly long-form journalistic articles about compelling topics in science and tech. These “unmissable” nonfiction narratives will be available for download at a projected $.99 per piece. Already, Matter has assembled a crack team of contributing writers, and seems poised to enjoy a fast-growing audience populated by its many
backers.
PostDesk: Though
crowdsourcing has been applied to
classic journalistic platforms, it’s been used mainly to acquire 140-character commentary, to engage real-time audience interaction, or to surface trending topics. Seeking more in-depth coverage,
PostDesk is using the crowdsourcing model to commission paid, long-form works from would-be writers around the world. The beta platform hosts an in-house editorial staff and a short list of regular contributors, but also encourages reader submissions of features, reviews, editorials, and analyses, under general topic headings like culture, tech, politics, and art. The ability to build discussions around buzz-worthy features is a major component of PostDesk’s plan to build an engaged community around high-quality content.
