Kickstarter team up with the Guardian to showcase journalism work
Crowdfunding platform Kickstarter has joined forces with the Guardian to publicise a new dedicated journalism category on its website together and highlight key projects.
Launching today the functionality will allow journalists to seek financial backing for key projects just as it currently does for those in the technology and film sectors. In tandem with this the Guardian has also been given its own page on the Kickstarter website from which to publicise its work.
Commenting on the tie-up Caspar Llewellyn Smith, the Guardian’s interim network editor and head of culture, said: “Kickstarter’s journalism category will be a home for projects that have until now landed in other areas of the website, and it reflects our interest in helping new journalistic models thrive,” the online crowdfunding service said. “Against a backdrop of flux and confusion in the journalism business, more than $10m has been pledged to 2,000-plus journalism, periodical, radio, and podcast projects on Kickstarter to date.”
A number of journalism projects have benefitted from Kickstarter funding in recent years, including Homicide Watch, a bid to cover every murder in Washington for one year and The Tar Sands reporting project, which sought to highlight the impact of the industry on Canadian society.