There has been plenty of coverage of the Mehserle trial in Los Angeles. Spot.Us, New American Media, Oakland Local, KALW, Mission Loc@l, The California Beat and others joined forces to try and provide independent coverage.

Some initial feedback that was given to Thandisizwe: “A BART attorney intorduced himself to me by asking how to pronounce my name.  He said he “reads your stuff everyday,” pointing to me and Ms. Manyak from the Beat/Campanil.  He said, “I read theirs too,” pointing at the guy from the Oakland Tribune, “but I read yours first, then I read theirs.”

Kevin Weston from New American Media points out that: “The Tweets are amazing and have broken at least three stories.” You can listen to an interview between Thandi and Kevin on Wednesday at KALW.

If you haven’t been following these tweets can be found: twitter.com/OscarGrantTrial

Examples of “community funded reporting” are cropping up all over the place lately. We love it!

We’ve defined “crowdfunding” as distributing the cost of hiring a reporter across many different people with complete transparency about where contributions are going. In other words – we let people decide where the money is going. When people donate to Spot.Us they aren’t donating to the organization – they are contributing to a specific project on our site. I’ll say it again: NPR could do this tomorrow and blow Spot.Us out of the water. At the moment, however, there is no transparency or control about how/where the money goes. You are just giving to the organization.

While I don’t suspect NPR will take me up on that challenge and start doing community funded reporting tomorrow, more and more folks are. (NOTE: I have NOTHING but respect for NPR and know many great folks there – including some that have participated in Spot.Us projects).

Check out this project from The Institute of Southern Studies. Want to see more Gulf Oil spill coverage?

Or maybe you want to see more Gulf Oil spill coverage from The Faster Times.

Both organizations are employing what I would call “community funded reporting.” They are distributing the cost of hiring the reporter across many different people and they are transparent about how the money contributed will be spent. They are basically giving the editorial decision over to the public.

Technically these and other projects could be considered ‘competition’ for Spot.Us. I embrace them. I love it. In fact, if these projects weren’t sprouting up, I’d have to seriously re-think if what I’m doing makes any sense.

Another great example is coming from Leonard Witt‘s Center for Sustainable Journalism called the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange. There are parts to this project that I think put it off a bit to the side of how I have envisioned “community funded reporting” – then again, Leonard has been exploring something he calls “Representative Journalism” which is perhaps meant to be different. From what I understand it’s finding membership-like contributors ($X a month) to support a very niche topic – in this case juvenile justice issues.

Again – not exactly what I envision – but certainly a cousin if not a direct sibling to “community funded reporting.”

All these projects and more are taking place right now and I find it very satisfying. It is a giant justification of the time and energy we’ve put into thinking through how to present a pitch. How to fundraise for a pitch and more. As we break more ground with “community centered advertising” (NOTE: Feedback is encouraging me to start calling ti “community focused sponsorship) I hope we will continue to break more ground that will allow others to follow in our footsteps.

If in a few years from now “community funded reporting” is commonplace – even if Spot.Us is not a market leader in the space I would feel as though we have done our job. As this Tweet from Craig Newmark and Dan Gillmor notes: “by channeling @Digidave and spot.us RT … The Faster Times, looking to reinvent the newspaper model http://bit.ly/9OXvMp”

If Spot.Us fails but future organizations can channel our methods to fund independent reporting – then our larger mission, to push transparency and participation in the process of journalism, will be a wild success.

Last week we received sponsorship from Mortgage Revolution and we let YOU decide how the money would be spent. It was an experiment we call “Community Centered Advertising” and it received praise from the likes of Poynter and community members.

We are at it again with a whole new campaign. By helping us refine and define this new feature we hope to find future sponsors AND we are going to reward you for helping us by giving you credits on Spot.Us that can fund the reporting of your choice.

We have some GREAT new pitches to support that cover topics like social justice, redevelopment and even animal issues in Los Angeles. Up north in the Bay and Seattle you can support coverage of the Oakland police, the UC system, and environmental topics like how green the cruise industry is. You can support any of these stories for free by following the simple steps below. Answering these questions will also help Spot.Us find future sponsors!

NOTE: If you participated in our first campaign, that’s great. You can participate in this one too. You saw how quick and easy it is – why not give it a second try and double-down!

How it works

• Step 1. Register or log in at Spot.Us (upper left hand corner).
• Step 2. Click the “Earn Credits” button in the header.
• Step 3. Take the painless survey.
• Step 4. Click submit and then browse the pitches on Spot.Us. Click “Apply Credits” – confirm you want to apply credits and bingo!
• Step 5. Feel good that you’ve helped support civic reporting. Share it with your friends!

Feedback from our first test via Poynter: “In some ways, it seems like a no-brainer: Encourage consumer engagement with advertising by giving users a stake in deciding how the revenue gets spent.”
Your feedback was also very positive: Dan Gillmor “The most innovative thing in journalism advertising in years…”

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS!

Our first experiment in this is funded by Mortgage Revolution. (THANKS AGAIN!). Its mission is to empower loan officers and the mortgage industry by setting higher standards for transparency in lending and ethical business conduct.

INTERESTED IN BEING A SPONSOR?

We want to have more opportunities for sponsors to get their message across in exchange for letting community members support the reporting of their choice. Are you interested in being a sponsor? We have special deals for the first few organizations that commit. Contact: David@spot.us for more info.

EARN Credits on Spot.Us answering 3 quick questions -  then fund a story!

Hello Spot.Us community members. We are very excited about sharing a new feature we are calling “community centered advertising.”

Check out Spot.Us’ new button “Earn Credits.” Simply log in, take a three question survey from our sponsor and earn $5 in credits which can support the reporting of your choice. (Go directly to the survey here.

By taking this quick survey you can generate real money to support the reporting topic of your choice. And you’ll help us re-think and re-invent advertising along the way! But this offer is only good while the sponsorship dollars last! And you can only take the survey once – so choose wisely!

If you’ve ever wanted to help Spot.Us out more but couldn’t bare reaching for your wallet – now is your chance to get involved!

How it works

1. Register or log in at Spot.Us.
2. Click the “Earn Credits” button in the header.
3. Take the painless survey. Just three questions. At the end of the third question it’s OPTIONAL to leave your email address for more information (100% OPTIONAL)
4. Click submit. Then browse pitches on Spot.Us. Click “Apply Credits,” confirm you want to apply your credits and bingo!
5. Feel good that you’ve helped support civic reporting.

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS!

Normally a news organization gets advertising dollars and the editor decides where the money goes. That’s not the case here at Spot.Us. We let the community decide. But we do have to thank our sponsors “Mortgage Revolution.” They are working to change the image of mortgage professionals – and that’s why they are giving you the chance to control your local media through Spot.Us. Mortgage Revolution has no say in where the money goes – it goes through you! So please join me in thanking Mortgage Revolution for the chance to experiment with “community centered advertising.” Let’s also wish them lots of luck in stirring a grassroots movement in the mortgage industry that upholds higher standards for transparency in lending and ethical business conduct. GO MORTGAGE REVOLUTION!

INTERESTED IN BEING A SPONSOR?

We are looking for more sponsors! Consider a survey for market research, brand or cause marketing or more (we have lots of ideas). In exchange – your sponsorship dollars will go directly to community members so they can fund the reporting of their choice (and they’ll love you for it).

Are you interested in being a sponsor? We have special deals for the first few organiations that commit. Contact: David@spot.us for more info.

Until next time.
David Cohn
Spot.Us

Our friend Amy Gahran has a great writeup about how The Toxic Tour pitch on Spot.Us recently received a national SPJ award.

Spot.Us can be many things to many people. For 48hrmag.com it isn’t a fundraising mechanism. That’s fine.

What they do need is a tool to be as transparent about money as possible. They were looking for an entity that can act as an independent third party to publicly keep track of money. That’s certainly one way to describe Spot.Us. The fact that one of the founders behind 48mag.com is Alexis Madrigal, the first ever Spot.Us reporter, is even more incentive for us to step up and help out.

Don’t know what 48hrmag.com is? Check it out – it’s a cool concept. And keep an eye on their Spot.Us pitch to see where the money is coming from and how it’s being spent! Alexis has the details below.

We’re happy to announce another very important partner: Spot.us will be our platform to let you follow the money. We want to provide total financial transparency and Spot.Us is how we’re going to do it.

Money is usually the stickiest (and ickiest) part of fun projects. Handling money that isn’t your own can be a terrible responsibility. So we at 48 Hour Magazine were a little nervous about what to do with the cash that’s going to flow through our collaboration.

Luckily, along with the other tools of the emergent flash publishing ecosystem — Twitter, Magcloud, Heroku, etc — there are new ways of doing the financial side of things, too. David Cohn’s Spot.us began as a way of crowdfunding local stories in the Bay Area. Recently, it sprouted pseudopods and moved to other cities as well as into broader journalism activities. Cohn recently called his site “a collaboration engine” that helps you deal with the tough parts of unconventionally funded projects. We like that.

So, we now have a pitch page up on Spot.us. That’s where we’ll be depositing our sponsorship cash as well as profits from magazine sales. You can read up on our overall financial plan here.

Makers Quest has a great article about Spot.Us that interviews some of our reporters.

Holly Kernan, News Director at KALW says, “We’ve had terrific experiences with Spot.Us and hope to use it more in the future. So far, we’ve mostly been experimenting with how best to use it. We promote it on air, but not too much, we send folks to the link on our site.”

Spot.Us offers media organizations a widget they can post on their websites to draw attention and click-throughs for donations.

Another KALW + Spot.Us success story was a two-part series on homelessness in California by Thea Chroman. “Return of the Hooverville: Car and Tent Cities on the Rise in San Francisco” was also produced for Roxbury News. Check out her powerful audio slideshow.

….

Gies says Spot.Us is a sign of hope for independent media, “As we all know, journalism is undergoing a tectonic shift right now. It’s a scary time with strapped budgets and few assignments, but it’s also exciting because there is a lot of entrepreneurial energy and creativity, and the future of news will likely arise from this experimentation…I hope Spot.us can remind readers of both the public service that journalism offers and that that service costs money and is worth paying for.”

In Los Angeles, freelance audio and video journalist Patrick Burke was able to raise $500 for his reporting on American Apparel’s firing of 1800 immigrant workers in Los Angeles.

Burke says, “Making Contact supplied $250, and with quick descriptions of the project and my credentials, plus two video teasers of my best interviews, I soon had several small contributions that provided the other half. David [Cohn] also worked with me on trying to place the video piece when the project was done. In the end, everyone was happy, except the former American Apparel workers.”

Still, Klein says it was a worthwhile experience. He offers this advice, “A spot.us reporter needs to be their own organizer and advocate to generate interest and financial support for their own work. It was not one of my strong suits. I plan to pitch a hyperlocal story next time, and then reach out to a group of people I have connections with in my community to help get it fully funded.”

Spot.Us isn’t the only option out there for freelancers and independents seeking to get work, assignments, distribution and money.  Here are a few others to consider, all which have different models and missions.

• Guru
• E-Byline
• Helium

ONWARD!

Perhaps it’s ironic for me to write about advertising. Fellow Knight News Challenge winner Dan Pacheco can quote me as once saying “f*&# advertising” and one of the initial inspirations for me to get into journalism was Adbusters Magazine. Below I want to describe a potential advertising model that Spot.Us hopes to employ (and others can steal) along with general thoughts about the diversification of revenue streams.

Community Centered Advertising

The underlying inspiration for Spot.Us is to give the public a freelance budget so they can help set the editorial agenda. Right now that is done via contributions from their own wallet. But what if they directed an advertising budget? What if the people to whom an advertisement was directed had a say in where the money it generated went? I imagine it would look something like this.

A button on Spot.Us that says “Earn Credits.” Upon clicking a user is sent to a blatantly sponsored page. We even have our first sponsor Mortgage Revolution. They are holding a fundraising event in San Francisco and part of the proceeds will go to sponsor our first Community Centered Advertising campaign which will try and stir up conversation about the real estate and mortgage industry.

In Community Centered Advertising the sponsor is looking for some kind of engagement with their brand, cause, business, etc. In the case of Mortgage Revolution they hope to stir up a healthy conversation about the real estate and mortgage industry. But let’s use Levi Strauss purely as an example.
Perhaps Levi’s provides survey questions:

• What is your favorite cut of jeans?
• What is a memorable Levi’s moment you’ve had?
• You buy Levi’s jeans because… (multiple choice answer).

Or it can be a branded survey simply to get the customer to think more about Levi’s

• What year was Levi’s invented? (Multiple choice)
• Guess how much of material X Levi’s produces a year?

Or a quick video that people have to watch Hulu-style.

Upon engaging with the advertisement the Spot.Us community member earns X credits, which represent real dollars, and they can direct those credits toward funding the story (or stories) of their choice.

The community still makes the decisions about what stories get funded but they are doing so with our advertising budget, not their own money.

At this stage it’s just theory but we have our first sponsor and hope to roll this feature out soon and I hope more sponsors will follow (if interested in details, send me a note: david@spot.us). Then again, we may find that the Spot.Us community reacts negatively to it. Who knows? That’s why we need to try it — even new media experiments need to experiment.

Depending on the level of the sponsorship Spot.Us would probably take a small overhead fee. But even if we didn’t, I would feel encouraged that with a low overhead we will be funding independent reporters. (Want to know when this feature is live so you can be one of the first to try it out? Sign up for our newsletter).

Journalists Awash at Sea

I bring this up because like all news organizations Spot.Us needs to diversify revenue sources. An analogy I often use is that, “Journalists are awash at sea. Previously we could rest the majority of our weight on a few revenue streams — advertising, classifieds — but now we need to get many revenue streams and a piece of rope to tie them all together in order to make a stable raft that distributes our weight.”

This also requires re-thinking and re-inventing our relationship with classifieds, advertising and even coupons.

One of the problems I’m observing is that instead of re-inventing our relationship with classifieds, advertising and even coupons, news organizations are assuming they can take the old models and stick them on the web and move on.

Craigslist as Counter-Factual; GroupOn as Factual

I hate when journalists point to Craigslist as a “killer.” But let’s talk about why there is so much tension there. The fact is Craigslist was not a technical innovation. Any newspaper company could have invented it. They didn’t because it would have drastically re-thought their relationship with classifieds. The bummer in this is that newspapers were really always in the advertising and classifieds business and used their profits to support journalism. That business has dwindled and journalism has suffered. Imagine if Hearst had created Craigslist? The profits from that would most likely be pumped back into newspapers.

This isn’t to knock Craigslist either. With his profits Craig Newmark has created the Craigslist Foundation which is a HUGE boon for society. Craig has also supported journalism here and there. Understandably this isn’t his top issue — but at least it’s on his radar.

Now look at GroupOn. Take a good hard look. I think Michael Skolar is right in his post “I‘m suggesting you steal the idea for your local news operation fast before national competitors own the market.”

These sites represent a new relationship to coupons, one of the last great revenue streams is being revolutionized right underneath newspapers’ feet. And once again the technology isn’t mind-blowing. I’m talking to the big guns (Hearst, McClatchy, Gannett, etc.) when I say “start something like this up now or buy one of these startups.” The revenue you make can be reinvested into journalism because that’s what your companies do.

I consider the founder of GroupOn a friend, but I doubt his company would just take profits and subsidize journalism — that’s understandable. The few companies that historically used profits from advertising, classifieds and coupons to prop original reporting are few and some of them are going bankrupt.

Re-inventing our Relationship to Advertising

One of the reasons Facebook is worth so much is because of the relationship they have created between advertisers and users. As an example a little birdie at the NY Times once told me that the number two country for registered users on the New York Times was…Afghanistan.

Before you start scratching your head as to why so many Afghans are reading the NY Times, consider the image of this registration drop down from NYTimes.com:

Now you can stop scratching your head.

Compare this to Facebook where most people freely reveal their age, religion, relationship status and more. Now ask yourself: As an advertiser, where do you want to be? The site with lots of people pretending to be Afghans or the site where you can target the customer you most want? Privacy issues aside, it’s pretty ingenious. And some might even argue that a good advertisement is good content. If the advertisement is exactly what you were looking for, it isn’t annoying — it’s helpful.

Interestingly enough the new relationship to advertisers is predicated on the new relationship with the audience. The more the audience is ready to reveal about themsleves the more advertising is valued. Same with GroupOn. If a customer freely reveals they are interested in a deal before it becomes official, the small business offering the deal starts licking their chops — rightfully so. And in all cases the user is incentivized to reveal the information because it’s in their benefit. For the Facebook user they are connecting with friends. For the GroupOn user, they are looking for money saving deals.

With Community Centered Advertising our hope is that community members are encouraged to reveal something about themselves in exchange for the ability to fund the original reporting of their choice. Most news organizations don’t have a system by which individuals can direct cash towards stories but perhaps they can offer something else?

What incentive can a news organization give to a user so that they freely reveal more about themselves in an effort to become more attractive to advertising? I would argue that it’s best if the end goal, to become attractive to advertisers, is done above the table — as with Spot.Us’ model and GroupOn’s. There is no deception. You are engaging with an advertisement. I wouldn’t argue that Facebook is being devious, but certainly they have come under criticism because users aren’t sharing their info with advertisers in mind, but rather with their friends as the goal.

So Now What?

As always, I never claim to have solutions. Just crazy ideas that I want to execute. Keep your eye open for Community Centered Advertising. If you’ve never donated on Spot.Us before, I hope this inspires you. Instead of having to reach for your wallet, you can just donate a little time and a little bit of your own knowledge. Register for our newsletter why doncha!

This morning thanks to media advisor Jennifer 8. Lee I had the opportunity to pick the brain of Eli Pariser of MoveOn.org.

The goal was for me to get unfuddled with Spot.Us’ emails. Who better than MoveOn.org to have as a guide in this space? They have used their email campaigns to change policy and activate a large community around political issues.

The main takeaway is that Spot.Us needs to be sending more emails. For the last six months or so – we’ve been sending only one a month and we are trying to catch everyone up on a month’s worth of news. Instead, Eli suggested, and I think rightfully so, that it is better to send frequent emails with specific updates.

I have been holding back and more and more – I’m getting feedback from folks that they want to get more updates from Spot.Us and that once a month isn’t enough. So consider this a public note to myself: Spot.Us will do a better job of sending emails out to our community and informing them about all the rad stuff we are doing.

It reminds me of what an old friend Amanda Michel once told me: “There is no such thing as too much email. Just too much unwanted email.”

Still – I’ve been holding back. But exciting things happen every day – every week, every moment. We need to share these moments with the larger Spot.Us community.

That said – I want to get feedback from you, the folks I want to communicate with. What are the kinds of updates you are most interested in? What are the kinds of updates you don’t want to hear about?

I already know our first quick update message which I hope to send out later today or tomorrow. It will be a good test for us.

Yesterday students, teachers, and labor unions joined in protest across California. From San Diego to Sacramento the message was clear – public education is an important public good and tuition hikes and budget cuts threaten that. No doubt you probably knew about the day of protest already. Almost everyone in California is touched in some way, shape or form by the public education system. A system that used to be described as a crown jewel of public education.

Peter Byrne continues his investigation into the regents financial holdings and what, if any, overlap they might have with the UC investments. He hopes to be done with his reporting by the end of the month. The media was certainly out in force covering the protest, but few are asking the tough questions. At Spot.Us we are proud to be supporting Peter as he goes beyond media hype and easy coverage of this issue. We hope you join us in supporting his work. Every small contribution helps.

Meanwhile: Spot.Us has collected some other coverage of the protests from around the state. Enjoy the articles below along with YouTube clips and photos.

David Cohn was at the Civic Center protest and grabbed some photos and video.

And nine short YouTube videos

UC Santa Cruz Protest Draws Nearly 1,000 Students – Neon Tommy
blogs.uscannenberg.org
The largest on campus protest was probably at UCSC which virtually shut down the school with 1,000 students. By noon, a large rally formed with students yelling “Student Power!” (YouTube).

March along Telegraph – a set on Flickr
flickr.com
A Flickr set of photos of the march along Telegraph Ave

From Santa Barbara
thedailysound.com
The rally and march, dubbed March Forth on March 4, began at noon at UC Santa Barbara, where about 400 students railed against state budget cuts that have resulted in 32 percent hike in student fees. From there, four bus loads of university students were taken to De la Guerra Plaza, where they joined with hundreds of students and teachers in the Santa Barbara School Districts for a march up State Street to the Santa Barbara County Courthouse Sunken Gardens

UC Berkeley Blackout Protest

YouTube
A look at racial issues tied to the UC protests.

Education Crisis: Behind the March 4 Day of Action
oaklandlocal.com
California spends $2,400 less per student than the national average and ranks 47th in per-pupil expenditures compared with other states, according to the Oakland Unified School District’s Every Student Blog. The state also ranks at the bottom of barrel for staff-to-student ratios. According to the blog, California cut money for education by $18 billion for 2008-09 and the first half of the current school year. As a result, each classroom has lost about $11,750.

UC Irvine March 4 Protest 3

YouTube
Students block traffic at the intersection of Campus and University.

KALW News Erica Mu gives a blow by blow on her blog.

Cal Students Rally to “Educate the State” on Day of Action

YouTube
From Youth Radio: UC Berkeley students, their parents, faculty, and labor unions rallied and marched from Berkeley to Oakland as part of a statewide Day of Action protesting fee hikes and budget cuts in state educat.

Protests Spotlight UC Fee Woes

YouTube
“There is not an atmosphere of cooperation with the legislation because there is an aura of secrecy within the UC system” Senator Leland Yee – at 1:10 into the video.

From the AP: Millions Protest Education Cuts in California

YouTube
Millions rallied across California to protest deep spending cuts to schools and universities. Demonstrations, marches, teach-ins and walkouts were planned in what was called the “March 4th National…

Shutting down 880
SFGate.com
More than 150 protesters were arrested on Interstate 880 in Oakland after using an exit ramp to walk onto the freeway and shut it down for nearly an hour. Many wore black, identified themselves as anarchists and carried a banner that read, “Occupy everything.”

In San Diego
San Diego Union Tribune
At San Diego State University, the University of California San Diego and other campuses, students, faculty and staff members banded together in anger over the budget upheaval, saying it undercuts the state’s 50-year-old promise to provide students with an affordable, quality education.

Lesson in SF grade schools: protest education cuts
sfpublicpress.org
Many students intending to begin the protest early were initially going to do so as a school-organized field trip, with fellow students and teachers, until the superintendent’s office issued a memo Friday banning field trips to the march, citing of safety concerns. “The notice came out on the 26th, very late in the organizing, and since then we have had a lot more families come on board to be part of the march,” said Adrienne Johnstone, a teacher at San Francisco Community School. She said many families were “coming to take their kids out of school early.”

NPR station KPCC in Los Angeles reports:
scpr.org
Audio interview with the following guests. Adolfo Guzman-Lopez, KPCC’s education reporter John Travis, Chair of California Faculty Association’s political action committee, Professor of Political Science at Humboldt State Issamar Camacho, By All Means Necessary (BAMN) Organizer at UC Berkeley, at UCLA today Joaquin Beltran, Associated Students President at Cal State Los Angeles. He will also be emcee of the Pershing square rally at 5pm. Steve Boilard, Director, Higher Education in the California Legislative Analyst’s Office Jack Scott, Chancellor, California Community Colleges H.D. Palmer, Deputy Director of External Affairs, California Department of Finance

UCSC protesters stream toward downtown Santa Cruz again…
San Jose Mercury News
The protest at UCSC continues.

Protest outside my office – UC Berkeley

YouTube
Video of the UC Berkeley Protest – March 4th, set to calm music