new model journalism


David Crouch finds there are gaps in the market where serious, investigative journalism can thrive, based on new business models


ay for Blank Spot


Country: Sweden Launched: 2015 Description: Digital platform for long-form foreign affairs journalism Aims: “Our goal is to tell the stories that do not get told. Crises and disasters need to be monitored and reviewed not only when they have just happened but also before and after” Funding: Subscribers and crowdfunded donations, but all the journalism is free online After a year of reporting from around the world, the Blank


Spot project now faces a challenge to get to the next level. Its goal is to have 10,000 paying subscribers within three years. Articles all carry details of exactly how much they cost


in terms of what the journalists were paid and what their expenses were. A selection is translated into English and German. Journalists are employed for a minimum of two months,


with a monthly salary of SKr 37,000 (£3,150) – the thinking is that the quality of their work is higher if they can afford to focus only on the story in hand, rather than trying to do lots of stories just to pay for the trip abroad. “Swedish newspapers cover international news such as the


Ebola crisis, Ukraine, the earthquake in Nepal and the crisis in Burundi. But they don’t go back to these countries – you just get the live reports when something happens and, a year later when these countries face real challenges, then there is no coverage,” says co-founder Martin Schibbye. “That is the role of Blank Spot, when all the other journalists


have gone home. Our job is not to do ‘news’, but to be there before and after things become news.” The door between domestic and foreign reporting is wide


open, he argues. Stories that start in Stockholm can end in Peru and vice versa. “There is no boundary between foreign and domestic stories,” he says.


Mediapart


Country: France Launched: 2008 Description: Digital investigative platform Aims: “To invent a response to the three crises – democratic, economic and moral – that undermine information in France, its quality and usefulness, its honesty and freedom” Funding: Subscriber only, but subscribers can share articles for free There is a crisis of trust in our profession, says Edwy


Plenel, co-founder of Mediapart. The story of his creation is one of experienced journalists coming from the old world of journalism who “want to show there is another way”. “Mediapart is like a laboratory, a laboratory of resistance,”


he says. “We need to create a new professional culture in journalism,


an investigative culture. Investigations are not a part of journalism, not a speciality – they must be part of our culture, you must find new information that the powerful do not want to be made public. As has been said, journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed, and everything else is public relations.” Mediapart is a totally digital outlet, and sets great store


by its online conversation with its readers. “We are part of our audience, not above it, we must discuss with citizens,” Plenel says. “The first condition of independence is to be profitable,”


Plenel says. The outlet has been sued more than 100 times, but lost only three times.


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WILLIAM DANIELS/PANOS


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