At last night's UW panel discussion titled "Journalism on the brink? Can digital save it?" two interesting projects were mentioned: Spot.us and Kachingle. Kachingle, a California start-up, allows you to financially support online content you like by paying a monthly fee. Each time you visit a blog you like, you click a "Kachingle" medallion. At the end of the month, your monetary contribution is fairly distributed to the content you favored most. The company's tagline is "sprinkle change on the blogs you love." I like it. Spot.us is a nonprofit which allows the community to commission journalists to pursue investigative projects and articles. Donations are tax deductible, and reimbursed if a news organization buys the content. Stories currently posted on the Spot.us site include "How safe are San Francisco Bay beaches and water a year after the Cosco Busan oil spill?" and "The Return of the Hooverville: Car and Tent Cities on the Rise in San Francisco."
exellent.
Not only would I try Kachingle, I've already contacted them asking why the site isn't yet set up for potential subscribers to learn more. The CEO is turning up in the press, they need to have that site ready for the traffic. It's a good plan, and I'm ready to pay for the content I use.