Spot.Us is a nonprofit project of the
Center for Media Change
and funded by various groups like the
Knight Foundation.
We partner with various organizations including the Annenberg School of Communications in Los Angeles.
We are an open source project, to pioneer “community funded reporting.” Through
Spot.Us the public can commission journalists to do reporting on important and perhaps
overlooked topics. Contributions are tax deductible and if a news organization buys exclusive
rights to the content, your donation will be reimbursed. Otherwise, all content is made
available through a Creative Commons license. It’s a marketplace where independent
reporters, community members and news organizations can come together and collaborate.
You can learn more about us at our
Press Page,
the FAQ's below or watch this quick video.
Contact
We are incredibly passionate and do our best to answer every email. Don't hesitate to contact
us:
info@spot.us
Before you send us an email - check our FAQ's below. Perhaps your question has already been
answered.
Who
Spot.Us was founded by
David Cohn and made possible by a generous grant from
the Knight Foundation. Spot.Us has also drawn on support from individual funders
like yourself, a fantastic team of advisors, designers and developers of
Hashrocket.
We are proudly hosted by
Engine Yard. We are an open source project
and you can contribute on
Git Hub.
Anyone can create a news "tip" about an important topic you think should be reported on. This is
often related to the question "what are you passionate about?" You can pledge to this tip, but
no money is taken - it’s just a way to show how much interest you have in this possibly becoming
a pitch. Creating a tip could be the spark that starts an investigation.
What's the difference between Pledge and Donate?
Pledges give reporters a sense of community interest in a news “tip.” It does not
represent real money. Nothing is committed - although we ask you pledge only what you’d be
willing to eventually donate if a reporter builds a full "pitch" inspired by this tip. Donations
to pitches are tax-deductable and are a transaction. If the pitch is unsuccesful, you will
receive money back in the form of Spot.Us credits. No matter what your money will go to support
journalism.
In the future we hope to build out a more dynamic credit system such that credit
cards are only charged if the specific pitch you want has reached its funding goal.
What happens to the finished content?
Finished content is licensed under Creative Commons and anyone is free to
republish it. Spot.Us works with local news organizations to get it distributed in as many
places as possible. See our growing list of media partners. Our partner news
organizations can also obtain temporary copyright to the content (first publishing rights) if they
donate 50% or more towards a pitch. Extra proceeds go back to community members who
originally supported that pitch.
What does it mean to join the reporting team?
Spot.Us believes that many stories can benefit through collaboration. When you "join the
reporting team" a message is sent to the reporter that you are intersted in helping out
with the reporting. If the reporter has assignments, we will pass them along and you will
have access to the pitch's blog so you can show the reporter and the world what you have dug up.
Not all stories benefit through collaboration, so joining the reporting team is done on a case
by case basis by the reporter who is in charge of the pitch.
What if the pitch I donate to doesn't reach its goal?
All credits are returned to your account and you can direct them towards any other existing
pitch. You will have until the end of the fiscal year to put the money back in circulation
through the Spot.Us system.
In the future we hope to build out a more dynamic credit system such that credit
cards are only charged if the specific pitch you want has reached its funding goal.
Who are these reporters?
Reporters on Spot.Us are self-identified freelance journalists. We do speak with every reporter
about their pitch and verify their identity. As a marketplace we will continue to build tools to
enable you to find out more about these reporters and judge them on the merits of their work.
But it is important to note that Spot.Us does not try to define who is and is not a journalist.
Any self-identified freelancer can work with us and if they are earnest, we will reciprocate. We
encourage every citizen to view the reporters profile and pitch critically before you donate.
How are prices for each pitch determined?
As a marketplace Spot.Us is continually updating its
pricing guildines.
We have built this guidline as a means to explain how much a
reporter can reasonable ask for during an investigation. It is based on competitive rates
throughout the country for freelancers.
Your Privacy
Privacy is very important to us. We will never share your information with a third party. No
if’s and’s or but’s. To learn more, please check our
Privacy Policy.
Agreement to Work with Spot.Us and Pricing Guidlines.
We've created a pricing guidline based on competitive rates for freelancers. This also includes
the "reporters agreement" that explains the working relationship between Spot.Us and the
reporter.
Tips are exactly what they sound like – community tips on untold and important stories.
Creating a pitch and then referencing a tip will send a note to every member of that group
to let them know their story tip could become a reality in your pitch. In this sense - the
community is your ally in forming pitches. Browse the tips and create pitches based on them.
You can reference as many tips as are relevant to your pitch.
Advice on Creating a Pitch
Write the pitch so that anyone who reads it will want to see that story materialize. Sell your
idea and your expertise on the subject. Don’t be afraid to be personal. Upload a YouTube video
explaining who you are and why you’re the right person for the job. Imagine what civic leaders
or organizations would want to partner with you. Remember - the public now has a freelance
budget, pitch them like you would the editor of a major metropolitan newspaper.
(Read More).
Attaching a Tip to Your Pitch
Attaching a tip is a reporters way of tapping the community members on the shoulder and saying
“hey, I’ve referenced your news tip in my pitch.” You can ping as many tips as you want – but
they should be related to the pitch you create.
What’s the Role of the Peer-Review Editor?
The Peer-Review editor has three main responsibilities – to ensure fair and accurate reporting,
to be a second pair of eyes before a story is published and to be a sounding board as the
reporter develops a story. To do the latter the Peer-Review editor should be in touch with the
journalist before reporting begins and before the draft is uploaded. At any time the Peer-Review
editor can report suspicious activities to Spot.Us. Peer-Review editors are assigned by spot.Us,
and the reporter can reject the first two assigned editors. The investigation will not publish
without the Peer-Review editor's approval. Any journalist can apply to be a Peer-Review editor
within their profile.
What does it mean if somebody has applied to join the reporting team?
This is great! It means somebody wants to help with your reporting. Some stories can benefit by
distributing the work load. If you need help researching or reporting, this is a volunteer.
Contact Spot.Us and we will put you in touch with the volunteer and then it is up to you if they
will join your reporting team. If they do, they'll have access to the pitch's blog. The choice
is yours, but Spot.Us encourages participatory journalism.
What Happens to the Finished Content?
Finished content is licensed under Creative Commons and anyone is free to republish it (with
attribution to the author). Spot.Us works with local news organizations to get it distributed in
as many places as possible. See our growing list of registered news organizations. Our partner
news organizations can also obtain first publishing rights to the content if they donate 50% or
more towards a pitch. Extra proceeds go back to community members who originally supported that
pitch.
Next time an editor rejects your piece purely for monetary reasons, suggest raising
half of your freelance salary on Spot.Us. Spot.Us is happy if you upload pitches to our site and
try to shop them around to news organizations at the same time under the condition that
interested news organizations work with the Spot.Us community.
What if my Pitch Doesn’t Reach its Goal?
You can accept to do the pitch regardless of whether or not you reach the original goal. So, if
you raise 80% of the stated goal, you can still accept that money, but you must do what was
outlined in the original pitch. You can also choose to cancel the pitch at any time and
donations will be directed back to the original donors so they may direct it to another pitch.
In the future we will have a more dynamic credit card system that will only charge a users
credit cards upon the succesful completion of a pitch.
Why Do we Need Shipping Address?
We will not share this information with anyone, it’s merely so we can send you a check for the
work that you do on Spot.Us.
What’s the Creative Commons Deal?
The end content produced by Spot.Us will be given away for free unless a news organization has
contributed either 50% or 100% of the total cost. In that situation - we will grant that
news organization temporary copyright to the article. Eventually all Spot.Us stories are licensed
under Creative Commons. You can learn more by reading our
Reporters Contract
News organizations have a special role in Spot.Us. They are the only type of user that is
allowed to donate more than 20% of a pitch's goal. As such, we interview news organizations to ensure
they ascribe to journalistic ethics as described by the Society of Professional Journalists. We
realize that a waiting period before you become a "news organization" on Spot.Us is less than
ideal, but it is important to us that these ethics are followed by anybody that could
singlehandedly fund an investigation.
Advice On Working With Spot.Us. How to bolster your freelance budget.
Spot.Us is an opportunity to bolster your freelance budget by working with and for the public.
We only work with freelancers, we cannot support staff writers. But if you do work or want to
procure freelance work, perhaps part of their wage can be shared with the public. You can donate
50% of their freelance salary upfront and the Spot.Us community can fundraise the other 50%.
Your organization will still get first publishing rights. Or you can register on Spot.Us and
find out about high quality articles that have been 100% community funded, so the reporting
comes from a profesional reporter, but you can run the content for free.
Here are the various ways your organization can get involved
Spot.Us content that is 100% community funded is made available for free to news organizations
to republish. Register on the site and we'll let you know when content is going to be published.
Donate 50% of the value of an investigation and you'll get exclusive rights. (This is only
available until the investigation has reached 51% funding through community donations, so get
in the game early).
Donate 100% of the value of an investigation and you'll get exclusive rights. You can do this
at any time - all extra proceeds will be given back to community members to invest in another
pitch. This is a way to build a new relationship with your audience. They'll love you for
refunding them and it's a built in audience.
We encourage you to donate small amounts as well. Even a tiny donations from a news
organization can be the push to give a pitch the momentum it needs to get community funding -
and you are welcome to the final content or even to apply as a peer-review editor.
We have lots planned. Our website is currently 1/4th of what we envision. As we
develop the open source code we want to add the ability for journalists to report on their
pitches in public on the Spot.Us site. We will add more functionality for all three types of
users (citizen, reporter, news organization) and who knows what else we might cook up along the
way. We are responsive to you, so your feedback is welcome.
Why are you focused on just the Bay Area?
We do hope to eventually expand into other regions of the country. We are committed to local
journalism for many reasons which we could talk your ear off about. As such, the Bay Area seemed
like a great place to launch our 1.0. As we improve the site we will launch in other cities.
PITCH:
Underground Economies: The Pot Biz
PITCH:
The cost of the DNA backlog
PITCH:
Mid-Market Blight - Issues at the Center of our City.
PITCH:
Confusion swirls around residential street parking near Kaiser Oakland
TIP:
Do you know where your food comes from in the local grocer stores?
TIP:
Undocumented Economic Contributions Vs. Immigration Status
PITCH:
Trouble in Trojan-land