Beacon Is Crowdfunding Journalism In Ferguson, Missouri

Now this is a startup crowdfunding campaign that I can get behind.

Beacon, a Y Combinator-backed startup for crowdfunding journalism, has started a campaign for original news coverage of the protests and police response in Ferguson, Missouri.

The company says that in fewer than 48 hours, readers have funded reports from multiple journalists, and allowed Peter Tinti to fly into the area. You can visit this page to see all of the coverage, paywall-free.

As I write this, the campaign has raised $3,035, which is 86 percent of its goal. However, co-founder Adrian Sanders says the fundraising will continue after the goal is reached — every $500 covers another day of coverage. Sanders added that without crowdfunding, “this image wouldn’t exist.”

As noted in the Beacon blog post, this is an exciting example of how crowdfunding doesn’t just work for long-term journalism projects, but for breaking news, as well. So that’s one reason I’m writing about it.

Here’s the other reason: Given the craziness of what seems to be happening in Ferguson, and especially the apparent police crackdown on news coverage, I think this is a campaign that deserves your support.