My latest Poynter Online story is about journalists who are using a site called Kickstarter to raise thousands of dollars for personal projects. The journalists I interviewed are pursuing projects that involve filming a documentary, writing a book and traveling to Tanzania to study Kihansi spray toads:
“As journalists face pay cuts and are asked to do more with fewer resources, it has become increasingly difficult for them to find the time and money to pursue large-scale enterprise stories or personal projects.
“But some journalists are finding a way to make it work. In recent months, they have raised thousands of dollars on Kickstarter to fund book projects, documentaries and international reporting. The site is similar to Spot.Us, the crowd-funding journalism site, but it isn’t limited to journalists.
“Launching projects on the site, journalists say, has given them the opportunity to pursue passions, think entrepreneurially about their work and find new ways of interacting with audiences — not only after completing a project, but while they’re working on it.”
Word on the Street 