WordPress.com has announced funding for a new platform, Newspack by WordPress.com, aimed at small- and medium-sized news organizations. Google, through the Google News Initiative, is taking the lead in backing the project & has committed $1.2 million.
Other funders include The Lenfest Institute for Journalism, which is contributing $400,000; ConsenSys, the venture studio backing Civil Media, which is contributing $350,000; & The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which is contributing $250,000. An additional $200,000 from a 5th source is expected to be contributed toward the project later this month.
According to a release, Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com, & its partners Spirited Media & News Revenue Hub, have secured US $2.4 million in funding for the first year of the project, which will be developed on WordPress.com’s Cloud-based platform & incorporate many of the best practices in digital publishing.
Newspack by WordPress.com is designed to address those issues. The goal is to help small digital publishers get onto the platform quickly & provide them with an affordable system that incorporates the best editorial & business practices from across the industry. The partners will launch a robust proof of concept with up to a dozen news sites by mid-2019 & then expand to supporting up to 60 Sites by early 2020.
“Local news organizations are struggling to find sustainable models for journalism — a crisis that has very real implications for democracy,” said Kinsey Wilson, President of WordPress.com & a former senior executive at NPR & The New York Times, in a written statement.
News organizations interested in being part of the pilot launch can go to newspack.blog to learn more.
In addition to Automattic, partners in the project include Spirited Media, which operates local digital news Sites in Denver, Philadelphia, & Pittsburgh, & whose founder, Jim Brady, has led large digital news operations including Washingtonpost.com; & Mary Walter-Brown, CEO of News Revenue Hub, a spinoff of Voice of San Diego, which provides revenue solutions for digital publishers.
The Lenfest Institute for Journalism will be fiscal sponsor for the project, managing the grant funding process & reporting broadly in the public interest on the progress and results of the project. Lenfest will also provide guidance & expertise on the business needs of local newsrooms & the selection of beta sites for initial deployment.
ConsenSys, one of the world’s largest blockchain organizations, will be a financial sponsor for the project. The new publishing platform will include a native plugin for Civil, a ConsenSys formation. This will allow any interested newsroom using the platform to easily join Civil’s community-owned & operated journalism network and/or permanently archive Content in decentralized, tamper-proof storage environments.
Image Credit: WordPress.com
