![]() ![]() In the fall, The Tyee, a British Columbia-based online magazine, raised $100,000 to finance a national expansion. So while journalists will be tempted by crowdfunding, they may find it more work than it’s worth.Ĭrowdfunding became an inescapable buzzword for many Canadians last summer when Gawker raised more than $200,000 on Kickstarter to buy a video of Toronto’s Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack. Even then, steady income isn’t guaranteed. Running a campaign is a second full-time job, one that relies on a cultivated brand name, far-reaching social networks and the ability to present a compelling project idea to a specific community. “I have enough to pay the bills and that’s about it.” Despite all its promise, crowdfunding is unlikely to be journalism’s future business model. “I barely make any money at it,” says Coleman. His page on Indiegogo claimed, “This will be Hamilton journalism, accountable to Hamiltonians.” He raised more than $10,000 in just under two months.Ĭoleman has now completed three successful campaigns on the crowdfunding site, raising a total of $21,034. ![]() But when people offered to fund him themselves in the fall of 2012, Coleman launched a crowdfunding campaign to provide original reporting on his own site. I am going to stop covering news.” That meant saying goodbye to a readership gained from work with Maclean’s, The Globe and Mail and The Hamilton Spectator. When CBC moved into Hamilton, Ontario, local journalist Joey Coleman couldn’t compete.
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