Crowdfunding can work in Canada, at least on a small scale. That seems to be the message out of the Tyee, a web-only publication in British Columbia, which decided to appeal to readers for cash to help cover the ongoing election in BC.
Tyee editor David Beers told readers early this month that if they raised $5,000, the Tyee would hire an extra reporter for each day of the campaign. Within two weeks, they’d raised almost $20,000.
This wasn’t your standard PBS membership drive, either. The Tyee invited donors to earmark their money toward coverage of a particular election issue — a spot.us-style move that lets funders dictate what news they ultimately end up reading. (In this case, the biggest chunk of money — $8,000 — went unearmarked.)
While this might one day be a viable way of funding news, the Tyee experiment might not work everywhere, as commenters on the site indirectly point out. Many see the Tyee as something of a protest publication; it might ironically be harder for, say, the Vancouver Sun to launch a successful crowdfunding project.
- Want great election reporting? Please donate, The Tyee, April 6, 2009
- Your issues, your donations, The Tyee, April 20, 2009