"The web is the future of journalism, but let's be honest: the future isn’t living up to expectations. Newspapers and magazines have cut back on in-depth reporting. Gossip sites have proliferated. The web has become a byword for fast and cheap. Why isn’t it synonymous with fearless, investigative and enthralling writing?"
SAN FRANCISCO - "The web is the future of journalism, but let's be honest: the future isn’t living up to expectations. Newspapers and magazines have cut back on in-depth reporting. Gossip sites have proliferated. The web has become a byword for fast and cheap. Why isn’t it synonymous with fearless, investigative and enthralling writing?"
The question is asked by Jim Giles and Bobbie Johnson, two reporters "with a passion for making journalism better." The idea? Producing independent, investigative journalism for readers, not advertisers. And charging 99 cents for it per piece, because, as they say, "good journalism isn't cheap".
At this point MATTER is still an idea for which Giles and Johnson are looking for funders on Kickstarter.com. The two are not running ahead of things. They describe MATTER as "an experiment to see if independent journalism, done right, can fill the gap left by mainstream media" and stress that they want to aim their focus on technology and science, nothing more.
Be that as it may, it will be interesting to see if MATTER is viable in the long run. Funders on Kickstarter seem overwhelmingly positive: the project reached its goal of $50.000 in less than 2 days. Who knows, maybe we are at the dawn of a new business model for in-depth journalism.
