• Freelancers

  News Agency Startup

  Posted by Frederic on November 30, 2022 at 3:36 pm

  A brief intro about me: I was Army for five years, 35M (HUMINT Collector), got out, did some hustles (private investigation and instructor down in Ft. Huachuca), and went into the IT/controls automation field. After getting fed up with that, I decided to listen to the good-idea fairy and dove head first into journalism, and after a bit of searching, I stumbled across MVJ.

  Earlier this year, I decided to pursue a dream from 2009: to create a news agency that approaches reporting like the intelligence community. Readers are the decision-makers, so they pledge funds to Requirements for reporters to answer. Reporters review requirements for reach (sponsor count) and financial support (aggregated pledges). If the requirement fits their beat or they can otherwise answer the requirement, reporters publish their findings. If there is much interest and funds, but no one covers it, reporters raise funds to pursue the requirement through proposals. Sponsors then vote on a report’s reliability giving feedback to the reporter. Sponsors have some options for contributing to reporters: 1) they can explicitly pledge to proposals or tip reports, or 2) if a report answers a sponsor’s requirement and agrees with the reporter, then the system automatically tips the reporter 10¢. This helps with the flow of funds, so they don’t become stagnant. Here come the tricky parts:

  1. The collective sponsorship body provides the intelligence analysis of the reports derived from the Wisdom of the Crowd principle. To give reporters meaningful feedback, field reports must be single-source. This way, sponsors consider the source’s integrity and accuracy when evaluating an article. To give reporters a way of protecting themselves from poor sources, they also provide a rating for the source. A reporter can interview a deceptive source, rate them accordingly, and not be punished for doing their job, and the system maintains integrity. There are analytical reports, but we can get into that later.
  2. Then there are trolls and mob mentality. To mitigate this, the system also evaluates sponsors. Sponsors who tend to vote against the consensus or chronically vote on divisive reports (the threshold is 67%) will receive a lower or even negative weight in their vote.
  3. The system is dynamic, so even if someone starts as unreliable or uncertain, they can improve their score by contributing appropriately.
  4. Requirements are groupings of subjects meant to be exclusive. The more subjects added to a requirement, the more narrow the focus. Reports and Proposals have a list of subjects that functions similarly, so when sponsors search for a requirement, they see reports, other requirements, and related proposals. This helps consolidate sponsor intent so everyone can understand what people want to know, how much funds are available, reporting, proposals, etc.

  Last few nuances, the agency adds and earmarks 10% + 30¢ when sponsors add credit. Stripe (processing service) receives 2.9% + 30¢. Custodians who hold reporters accountable to their proposals receive 3%. The rest goes to the operating costs of the platform. To become a reporter, there is a Stripe onboarding process, where you give them your bank/debit information to receive funds. Lastly, all the reports, proposals, requirements, and reporter bios are open to the public. No paywalls. People can only vote and participate when they are a sponsor (minimum $5 credit to get started).

  That’s the overview. The system is still in test mode, so only dummy data. If you want to get a feel, it is at https://mooney.news. I would love to hear feedback and garner support.

  Frederic replied 6 months ago 1 Member · 0 Replies
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