Jimmy Wales is the millionaire behind the world’s biggest source of public information – Wikipedia, and if he gets his way, you’re going to be visiting him for news soon too.
Wales has announced a crowdfunded news site called The WikiTribune, based around similar principals to his own Wikipedia, Wales wants to find a new model for media – not citizen media, not advertising supported media – crowd supported and fact checked media.
WikiTribune will employ journalists. People like you and me can contribute to WikiTribune, and the idea is people can contribute to a specific area of need – perhaps a niche not filled by the mainstream media?
Perhaps people will fund a journalist to report on Garden Insects? If they did, a journalist would write stories, and use the power of the community to fact check them.
Readers can visit the site for free, and anyone – like with Wikipedia – can submit changes to stories which are then reviewed and updated transparently.
Very noble, top idea – but it won’t likely take on the news giants of the world – because as much as Jimmy Wales seemingly detests click-bait, it’s not going anywhere soon.
