Q&A: David Cohn on Web-Based Freelancing
Convincing editors to fund story pitches can take months – even years. But through the nonprofit Web site Spot.Us, the community is funding one story per week on average.
Spot.Us is a nonprofit that enables journalists to solicit donations from the public to pay for their reporting. Most donors give around $20, and all are named. Anyone can propose a story, although the editors at Spot.Us decide which stories to pursue.
27-year-old Web journalist David Cohn – a.k.a. DigiDave – is the brains behind the operation. He received a two-year, $340,000 grant from the Knight Foundation to test his idea of “community-funded reporting.” With the rising strength of online journalism, Cohn saw an opportunity to make the process more participatory, transparent, and relevant.
Below, the young entrepreneur dishes to YPNation about becoming the Rupert Murdoch of nonprofit journalism – and his rule of never bringing his laptop to bed.
Company Name: Spot.Us
Location: Oakland and San Francisco, CA
Web site: http://spot.us
Full-time employees: 4
What spurred your interest in journalism and the web?
My entire career has been online, and I always followed technology news because I was a tech reporter for Wired. I wanted to update how journalism is done; I wanted to use technology to update and rethink freelancing. So I had a crazy idea: What if a reporter could post article ideas online and raise money for them? I pitched my idea to the Knight Foundation, and they liked the idea and gave me startup money.
So your idea resulted in launching a Web site called Spot.Us. What was the driving force behind it?
The most important thing to me is pushing boundaries and making journalism more transparent and participatory. The process of freelance journalists pitching ideas to editors already existed. So I suggested putting the ideas online, and creating a URL so freelancers could send their pitches to multiple people at once. It’s just making the process more open to the public.
Who influenced your passion for online journalism?
One of my biggest inspirations was Kiva.org. I’ve also had the opportunity to work with important and influential people, like Jay Rosen, Jeff Jarvis, and Dan Gillmor. They are all journalism thinkers who gave me the courage to try new things. They stick their necks out and question the way things are done.
You make success sound so easy. What are some struggles you have faced?
Some of the struggles I faced have to do with my age. People look at what I’m doing, and just think it’s really cute – they say, “way to go, little kid!” But what I’m doing is real journalism with real people. The best way to overcome these situations is with dogged persistence. I kept my head down, and eventually people had to take notice.
How do you balance your work and personal life?
It’s easier now that I’ve moved out of New York City. While I was at journalism school at Columbia University, I slept on in the lounges at least once or twice a week because I was there so late and lived all the way in Brooklyn. But now that I’m not in school anymore, I’m my own boss. Working online is a challenge; the Internet doesn’t sleep, so it’s important to figure out routines and stick to them. Although I work at home [in Oakland, California] most of the time, I still have rules: I get dressed in the morning as though I’m going somewhere, and at night I won’t take the computer to bed with me. I also have an office in San Francisco, where I spend about half of my time.
Why is journalism so important? What advice would you give Young Professionals going into the field?
Journalism is sometimes called the fourth estate – if you want a healthy democracy, people need to be informed. Journalism captures corruption and informs the public so that we can vote on good decisions. And my advice to aspiring journalists? Be prepared to start at the bottom; I did a year-and-a-half of internships. But all the rules are currently being rewritten, so this is an opportunity for young people to scratch their own itch.
Along those lines, what are your best tips for working online?
I have a friend named Cyrus Farivar who told me a good joke, but it’s true: Being a good journalist is three percent talent, and 97 percent not being distracted on the Web. Make sure you stay focused. I use “time boxing” to define my tasks and how long each will take. Without a strategy like this, you’ll just up end up on YouTube for hours.
Where do you see yourself in 10 or 20 years?
I have no idea. If Spot.Us continues, that could become my career – pushing transparency in journalism. I want to be the Rupert Murdoch of nonprofit journalism.
What’s the most enjoyable aspect of your job? The hardest?
The best feeling in the world is after something is launched. Once something is public and live, everyone can see what it looks like with real content. The hardest part is getting others to use my site; it’s no fun to launch something that no one uses. But so far, we have funded about 55 or 56 stories in about 60 weeks – and the first month was just us getting started. So we’ve been doing approximately one story a week. In truth, when I pitched Spot.Us to the Knight Foundation, I predicted doing four stories in our first year. It’s always good to under-promise and over-deliver. We’ve far exceeded what I had hoped for!
What is the biggest blunders you have made when it comes to your career?
None, I’m perfect. Just kidding. We’ve definitely had a few specific stories where we’ve made mistakes; reporters and freelancers have gone MIA or taken eight more months to deliver an article than they should have. We recently battled that issue by implementing a public deadline on the site for each project. But overall, we haven’t had any huge missteps with the organization. We just need to speed up the quantity and pace of our work.
What do you think is the most important lesson you’ve learned up to now, and how has it shaped you both personally and professionally?
I’ve learned to not let perfect be the enemy of good; don’t try to wait for something to be perfect before you release it. Spot.Us wasn’t perfect when we launched it, and it’s still not. You just need to put out what you can, when you can. Use that as a launching pad and learn from it. Don’t wait for a perfect moment – or you’ll be waiting forever.
Want to read about other young entrepreneurs? Check out YPNation's Q&A with filmmaker Ryan Connolly.
And don't leave without watching this quick video about Spot.Us!