Telling the Story of New WordPress Publishing Start-Ups

The Nieman Lab has a story up today about what it’s like to launch a newspaper. The writer launched his paper called Lookout in California 18 months ago and has an interesting story to tell. They aren’t using WordPress, but he’s part of a group of publishing start-ups and many of them are, including LBPost.com and ColoradoSun.com.

This a very practical article about the nitty-gritty of getting launched. Here’s a key quote:

With one common mission — to pay more talented journalists to produce incisive, community-bettering journalism — we no longer need to debate what’s going to pay for it. The two main funding drivers are the ones that have driven journalism for centuries. First, advertising: Display, sponsorship, branded content, promoted content, new “classifieds,” or whatever. Second, circulation: Subscription, membership or underwriting. We can now add philanthropy to the mix too. (You could add “events” as well, but those are really member or ad support.)

This items line up well with our article on Civil Beat in Hawaii. Their goal is “25% small donors, 25% larger local donors, 25% institutional giving and 25% ads and sponsorships.”

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