If you missed the story a few week’s back, this is just cool. Mark Zuckerman, former Nats/MLB beat writer for The Washington Times, started a blog and then a campaign to raise funds to travel to and report on Nats spring training. He set a goal of $5,000 on February 8 and surpassed that in just over a day. As of this posting, he’s raised over $10,000.
At a time when paywalls and the future of journalism are hot topics, fundraising successes like Zuckerman’s bring up some questions:
Are people more likely to support a freelance reporter with funding than pay a news organization for online content?
Is a donate-only-if-you-want model something that could work for a traditional media outlet and not just a single writer?
Are there some local journalists (in DC or elsewhere) with a big enough following that they could consistently make more money through a self-employed Zuckerman-type model than they can working for their current employer?
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