Journalists have been using Kickstarter, often successfully, for a while now. (Some projects that got funding include FOIA Machine, Matter and Livestreaming the 2014 Race for Governor by Texas Tribune.)
On Tuesday, the company gave the profession its own category (crafts also got its own category):
It’d be a vast understatement to say the world of journalism is currently experiencing a lot of change. To us, that means it’s more important than ever to make sure journalists have the tools and resources to try new things — whether they’re professionals looking for innovative ways of funding and sharing their work, or ordinary folks with a hunger to tell the stories around them. Together, we’ve seen people launch terrific podcasts, magazines, works of photojournalism, websites, and striking tools for learning about the world. We’re sure we’ll be seeing even more amazing things to come.
In May 2013, Laura Shin wrote a story for Poynter on “13 ways to get your journalism project crowdfunded.” Shin wrote then that “Since Kickstarter’s launch in April 2009, 816 journalism projects have sought funding on the site, with 36 percent of them succeeding.”
Kickstarter also announced on Tuesday that The Guardian created its own page to highlight Kickstarter journalism projects. That includes Drone on the Farm and Pedal-Powered News, described as “Using bikes to bring a local investigative newspaper to readers all over San Francisco. Super efficient. Shamelessly retro.”
