SXSW 2010: Spot.us and the Future of Accountability Reporting
By Alex Field, March 14, 2010
“There’s no silver bullet” to fix the decline of investigative reporting, says David Cohn. But the founder of Spot.us may be offering a bridge for journalism by handing editorial direction to the public. His “community funded reporting” model empowers freelance writers to pitch investigative story ideas, and relies on the people in the community to pay for it.
Whether it’s $100 for a story on a San Francisco bookstore closing or $10,000 to send a reporter to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, Spot.us gives the public the power to fund the core investigative reporting it cares about. And for Cohn, it’s a piece of the support raft that could help keep journalism afloat.
“The newspaper business going through a lot of hurt and this isn’t something to replace it,” he says. “But, it’s an additional revenue stream that lets people feel engaged with the process of journalism.”
According to The New York Times’ media critic David Carr, it couldn’t come at more important time. With the Times’ making money on the back of layoffs and buy-outs, Carr says that accountability reporting – which is time-consuming, expensive, and relies on sources cultivated over decades – is often the first to be cut.
Blogs and online media expertly cover the stories that “sparkle and amaze,” Carr says. “But the boring, important stories go unreported.”
Questions remain about Spot.us’ potential to fill the growing void of accountability reporting. Can community reporting sufficiently protect society’s most vulnerable – those without the resources to fund an investigation? And if popular topics are the ones that attract funding – environmental and social justice stories do especially well – can Spot.us ever be a source for the boring but necessary reporting on city hall?
Cohn is bullish on the future of investigative reporting, but recognizes that Spot.us is only one model of many to meet the demand for dependable accountability reporting. What’s critical is that we keep trying to find solutions.
“Media needs to get people engaged,” he says. And “it’s cheaper and easier to try something new than to sit around and debate.”