knight news challenge year 3 assessment

August 2012 / Prepared by Michael Maness & Mayur Patel

2009 Knight News Challenge Winners

MEDIA INNOVATIONINSIGHTS

‘07 ‘08 ‘09 ‘10 ‘11

Interim Review 2009 Knight News Challenge Winners

A CONTEST TO ACCELERATE INNOVATION

The Knight News Challenge is a five-year media innovation contest designed to reward new ideas for gathering, sharing and using local news and information.News Challenge winners must:

1 Use innovative open-source digital technology

2 Distribute news in the public interest

3 Test in a local community


WHO DID WE FUND?

Overview of 2009 Knight News Challenge Winners by Type & Grant Amount

NON-PROFITS INDIVIDUALS

6 3APPLICANTS

2,323

NEW PROJECTSAT EXISTING

ENTITIES

SCALED UP PROJECTSAT EXISTING ENTITIES

START UPPROJECTS

Virtual Street Corners

$40K

City Circles / Daily Phoenix

$101K

CMS UploadUtility$ 11K

WINNERS

9AWARDED

1.9M$

MediaBugs $335K DocumentCloud

$719K

Data Visualization

$244K

Mobile Media Toolkit $200K

Ushahidi $70K

Councilpedia $250K


A PROJECTTHAT SCALED A platform to help reporters annotate

and share source documents.

Document Uploads

CASE STUDY

Page Views JUNE 111,589 Document uploads

777,698 Page views

JANUARY Opened document

repository to publicsearches

JUNE Release of Sarah Palin’s emails and documents from Rod Blagojevich’scorruption scandalcause spike in traffic

MARCHInitial release of

Document Viewer, a module for extracting

text, rendering images and creating PDFs

2009 2010 2011 2012

AWARDED

$719K

TOTAL PAGES

DOCUMENT UPLOADS

4.6M

300K

AS OF MAY 2012

ACTIVE USERS

1.8K

ORGANIZATIONS

600

REPORTER ANNOTATIONS

51K

DocumentCloud

2012


MediaBugs

Despite adding multiple components over time, MediaBugs was unable to gain traction.

Page Views

Page Visits

APR 2010 2011 JAN 2012

8,415 PAGE VIEWS

APRILLaunch of MediaBugs error reporting site. MediaBugs Widget released at the same time.

OCTOBERTracking software opened to organizations across the US

JUNE17 bugs filed

APR 2000 MAR 2012

On average 7 bugs filed per month

NOVEMBERLaunch of Report an Error Alliance, an advocacy effort for transparency in error reporting.

FEBRUARYWordpress plugin released

1,500PAGE VIEWS

AWARDED

$335K

ERRORS (’BUGS’)FILED BY READERS

A PROJECTTHAT STALLEDCASE STUDY

A service that allows readers to report errors in media coverage


A NEED YOU CAN FEEL

No. 1

LESSONSLEARNEDTAKEAWAYS

Resolve a pressing problem for a well-defined audience. Having a single focus provides clear goals and refines the product to meet the needs of the target audience.


No. 2TAKEAWAYS Networks

Support outreach and broker partnerships

Leadership Combine a startups focus on strong tech and coding skills, with broader project management capacities

The benefits of havingan experienced institution to house your project and grow your ideas.

ExperienceGet access to legal assistance to incorporate and auditors to help with payroll and bookkeepingTHE WISDOM

THAT NURTURES INNOVATION

LESSONSLEARNED


CODE LEVEL PRACTICESIntegrate open source code development into all aspects of a project’s design.

No. 3


1 2 3Translate, modify and use existing code

Release code early and often, with documentation that makes it easy for others to follow and contribute

Build individual components, knowing that some elements may have uses beyond the focus of your project

To build a robust community of developers and contributors:


CULTIVATE EVANGELISTS

No. 4

Identify web-savvy advocates in influential newsrooms to champion the product and overcome barriers to adoption.

Internal evangelists enable adoptionwithin their own

media organizations

Evangelists also serve as trouble-shooters providing quick and

easy support for other potential adopters



HOW WE CAN IMPROVE AT KNIGHTTAKEAWAYS

BETTER DIALOGUEProvide opportunities for more frequent communication between foundation staff and grantees. Stay up-to-date on winners’ progress and troubleshoot as needed.


Help grantees plan for their marketing and outreach needs as part of their project budgeting. Use Knight’s own networks and communications to further assist grantees.

ATTENTION TO MARKETING

TAKEAWAYS

HOW WE CAN IMPROVEAT KNIGHT

2009 Interim Review Knight News Challenge

Provide additional ways for news challenge winners to connect with each other through small gatherings throughout the year in addition to the annual MIT Civic Media Conference.

NETWORKING WITH INTENTION

HOW WE CAN IMPROVE AT KNIGHTTAKEAWAYS

WHAT’S NEXT

Here’s what we’re doing in 2012:

1 2 3MORE Three contests in 2012

FASTER Each contest runs for 12 weeks

FOCUSED Themed contests focused on specific issues

The review of 2009 winners is part of a larger review of the News Challenge. We are continuing to track the results of the 2010 and 2011 winners.

‘07 ‘08 ‘10‘09 ‘11 ‘12

knight news challenge year 3 assessment

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