A Money Trickle for the Alt-P-I
The proposed alt-P-I website - an unaffiliated online paper supported financially by readers - is getting lots of, well, ink, and even some donations. A commenter on Daily Kos, for instance, which picked up the story from Seattle Post-Post-Intelligencer wiki, says he sent in a $250 donation, adding: "I will gladly pay a monthly subscription of $25 to keep the PI staff working to cover local and state news and sports. Even if they give subscriptions away free with local ads like Daily Kos, if enough of us pay what we feel is worth it to keep the news coming we can keep our PI staff working..."
And over at Publicola, Sandeep Kaushik writes about a second online effort by potential P-I alumni-to-be, led by managing editor David McCumber, possibly financed by the Bullitt Foundation, and specializing in regional investigative journalism, Pro Publica style (or maybe Spot Us-like). Both plans could require formation of a non-profit corporation and would likely end up competing with a scaled-down eP-I if Hearst maintains its web site after ending the print edition likely this month. Hearst, slyly, isn't tipping its hand, keeping these efforts in the incubation stage.
1 comment(s)
Olympia Bureau says:
Hearst honchos have been around the paper recently, with more visits planned. They likely already know what they're going to do, and it's cruel to employees not to inform them. As you suggest, Hearst isn't talking because it's about business, getting an edge, with little consideration for their longtime loyal workers.
Posted On: Thursday, Mar. 5 2009 @ 9:33AM