How crowdfunding is revolutionizing journalism – and the world
Two weeks ago we wrote a story about Positive News’ offer to #OwntheMedia.
Readers and investors were invited to buy shares in the London-based outfit that writes about extraordinary, uplifting events around the world and boy did they respond, raising £100,000 in about a week’s time.
They’re now on the tail end of that campaign and closing in on a £200,000 goal and asked me to share my thoughts on the impact of crowdfunding on media at large. It was a chance to reflect on recent developments as well as what Through the Cracks has learned since we launched roughly one year ago.
Here’s how it begins:
Crowdfunding is beginning to feel a lot like social media did a decade ago.
It’s been around for a couple of years and still isn’t taken seriously by some people, but it’s forecast to explode and have a massive impact on life as we know it. Like social media, pretty soon it may become so common that it’s a normal part of a lot of people’s jobs and lives.
That could certainly be the case for a lot of journalists.
[…] This is the third big equity crowdfunding campaign in journalism we’ve reported on this year. In early 2015 El Español raised €3.5 million euros, the largest single crowdfunding campaign to date to make a news startup possible, and in mid-2015, Positive News in London brought in more than €250,000. […]