Journalism Crowdfunding Campaign Finds Success on Indiegogo.
There have been more than a few crowdfunding campaigns launched in support of independent journalism and frankly many have failed but this one out of Canada just closed and beat their goal on Indiegogo.
As most people know, “the media” has been in a bit of a crisis mode. Traditional models are broken and most old school companies in slow decline. Yet the role of the fourth estate in today’s society remains an imperative. Ricochet, based in both Vancouver and Montreal, wants to give “free” content a shot without the assistance of display ads. How do you do 
that ? (One would inquire). According to their campaign page on Indiegogo;
“This campaign is a preview of our model of permanent, sustainable crowdfunding. Ricochet will integrate tools to permit our readership to directly support the work of our writers.”
The initial funds raised will go towards building their new platform and paying their contributors. Organizers want to recapture the power of independent, investigative journalism from the large corporations. Described as an “audacious” response the fear is that the missing void of independent voice will end up undermining our collective democracy. There are plenty examples from around the world where one can see the fragile nature of a a “civil” society.
If you are interested in helping out you can probably still contribute. For $300 CAD you get a lifetime “membership” to the forthcoming platform. Over 1500 backers contributed to make this campaign a success -besting their $75,000 CAD objective. From the other side of the crowdfunding aisle, Kickstarter recently announced a new portion of their platform solely for journalism projects. They have partnered up with old school media giant the Guardian too.
So what’s next for the bi-lingual, left wing publication? I guess we will just have to wait and see..
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