JUST LAUNCHED: Kickstarter Campaign to Fund Freelancers

In light of the recent wave of layoffs, the Save Journalism Project, today, launched the Freelance Reporting Initiative, a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to hire laid off reporters to write freelance stories highlighting the challenges posed to the journalism industry by the tech giants. Today, publications can pay as little as 25 cents per word for a freelance piece. The Save Journalism Project Freelance Reporting Initiative will pay freelancers $2 a word, far more than the going rate and reflective of the need to support high-quality journalism.

According to John Stanton – co-founder of the Save Journalism Project and former DC bureau chief of BuzzFeed, before being laid off in January – “One of the biggest challenges with freelancing is funding the travel, the research, and the time it takes to write the story, all before you can even pitch it – especially for journalists suddenly laid off and adhering to an unexpected budget. With this Kickstarter funding, freelancers will have the means to follow the lede, get the story, and educate readers before big tech’s death grip decimates journalism completely.” 

Stories will include deep reporting on how communities and newsrooms are being affected by the loss of news outlets and journalism jobs, and how the tech giants like Google and Facebook have come to dominate the digital advertising market so comprehensively and at the expense of news publishers.