Funding your journalism in 2014

As part of the research for Contributoria.com – the soon-to-be-launched community funding platform for collaborative journalism – I’ve been taking a look at, and trying out, some of the websites which offer journalists a place to sell their work.

I suppose I should point out up front that I’ve not made a penny from any of them – could well be as much to do with the content I offered as anything – and instead I found that the old-fashioned direct pitch to established contacts proved to be more lucrative.

But the experience of using these sites and understanding their particular niches was an interesting and useful one which I’ll share here:

Newsmodo
In a nutshell: Accepts pitches from/to national/international media.
The assignments offered tend to be quite celebrity focussed and tabloid style stories such as tracking down celebrity’s friends eg. ‘Le Vell to return to Coronation Street’.
I did pitch into a callout for a food and drink related story but didn’t hear anything back.
The site produces a useful daily newsletter asking for particular stories that have prices put up by the commissioning newsroom.
In the past week the site has been upgraded to allow users to add a personal profile which means skill sets and areas of expertise can be matched with the available briefs.
Plus: Very clear what is required and what price is available.
Minus: Feels a remote process, unless you win a pitch you don’t hear anything more or receive any feedback.

Demotix
In a nutshell: A network for freelance photojurnalists to offer work to international news media.
This well-known site has a huge number of contributors (30,000) and an impressive list of territories covered.
The most engaging content tends to be around protests and other live breaking news. This site also produces a useful newsletter advising on stories likely to be of interest to the mainstream media – again this tends to be more celebrity focussed.
Stories are moderated into the system and the site also provides some tips and help for contributors get the most out of their work.
As I haven’t sold anything, I’ve been unable to check out the payment process but there do seem to be regular grumbles about the length of time taken to pay for material in the user forums.
Plus: Strong connections to many of the world’s major newsrooms.
Minus: The site has so much content it feels easy to get overlooked.

Picfair
In a nutshell: Photographers set a price for an image to be licensed for use.
Launched in 2013 by a fellow former Guardian journalist, Benji Lanyado the site provides an easy way for photographers to showcase and sell images for the price they want. It’s not just news content either, striking images from anywhere in the world are featured and the site has just started making collections of the best across certain themes eg. storms and clouds, sunsets etc. Images are watermarked until payment.
Plus: Attractive design and the photographer has full control of their work.
Minus: Not yet clear how many purchasing organisations are searching out images via the site.

A few other developments I came across but haven’t tried out:

• StoryhunterTV A platform where freelance video journalists can pitch their ideas and receive editorial support and feedback, as well as a $1,000 fee for a four to six minute package, before the work is delivered to media outlets.
• Wattpad Fan Funding Toronto based social network for fiction writers which seems to have closed its offering now but at the time said it “offers authors on its network the chance to leverage their huge followings for raising capital towards creative works. It’s like a Wattpad-housed Kickstarter for creative projects, but there’s good reason Wattpad users would use it over the more established alternatives.”
• Help Me Write Not about funding work but for collaboration this is a smart little site where people pitch ideas and community express a view to make the writers understand its priority and so help decide which of their stories they should concentrate on first.

It’s interesting to note that most of the funding platforms tend to look towards the mainstream media as the main customer for content although brands, organisations, charities, businesses etc. are just as likely to be commissioning content as they move into publishing environments.

When we launch Contributoria.com later this week we’ll offer a different way of funding journalism so, if you’ve a great story just waiting to be written or a project to propose, we’ll be actively seeking contributions from Wednesday. Sign up to be notified when we’re open for business and follow on Twitter @Contributoria or Facebook.