Spot.Us has not expanded to Arizona but the concept of “community funded reporting” has. Soon I’ll do a blog post detailing how anyone can launch their own Spot.Us for relatively cheap (we’ve absorbed 90-95% of the cost of development)
But this post is to give kudos to Nick Martin of Heat City. Hat tip to Megan Taylor for pointing out Nick’s endeavor on this MediaShift post.
Martin considers Heat City to be an experiment, not a business venture. But it’s still a full-time job. Martin hopes “to turn Heat City into a project where other journos can post for the site as well.”
He is currently taking donations on his site, but is considering filing for non-profit status.
“The donations aren’t tax-deductible, and I think that makes people less willing to donate,” he said, “The site doesn’t have a business model, but I’ve gotten $310 in donations over about two weeks.”
I was happy to chip in $10 and to see that his donations have doubled to over $600. If there are people out there who like Spot.Us as a concept but are frustrated with our Bay Area centric approach (we are the center of the West coast though… deal with it) perhaps an Arizona reporter is more to your liking.
Like a true gent, Nick wrote me back…
Hey David,
Thank you so much for your donation. It means a lot coming from you. You know it’s tough out here in this new world, but support like this is what makes it worth it.Heat City has been doing great since I launched it last month. I’m getting lots of solid tips and leads and readers asking for more news. It’s fantastic. The support from the community, both financial and moral, is warm and unexpected. Honestly, having been in Arizona media for about five years or so, I thought the folks here wouldn’t embrace the independent-online model so quickly. I was wrong. It turns out people here are thirsty for something beside the stale dead-tree institutions they’ve lived with for years. It’s awesome. Totally surprised by my own neighbors.
….
Good luck to you Nick.