The News Frontier Database
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Results
Organizations filtered by No Institutional Support.
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December 29, 2010 12:02 AM
Alaska Dispatch
Enterprise reporting from the Last Frontier
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ANCHORAGE, ALASKA — Alaska Dispatch is a regional reporting powerhouse. A for-profit that fights aggressively for online ad dollars, the Dispatch still manages to be generous with its editorial budget. It sent a reporter all the way to the Gulf Coast to cover the BP spill and the potential fallout for Alaska's own oil industry. The site was also the first news outlet to... -
January 5, 2011 08:00 PM
Baristanet
Conversational hyperlocal news for New Jersey's Essex County
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MONTCLAIR, NEW JERSEY — There's something about the smell of steaming coffee grinds that sets the curious journalist in everyone... percolating. Coffee-guzzlers have always used cafes as something of a casual newsroom, a place for gossiping and sharing tidbits about everything from daytime soaps to national politics. And that was the starting point for Debbie Galant and Liz George, the editors, founders, and owners of the... -
January 4, 2011 10:35 PM
Bleacher Report
A sports news behemoth where fans do the writing, reporting, and search engine optimization
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SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — Since its launch in 2008 after two years of development and beta testing, Bleacher Report has become a major player in online sports media. A unique combination of social networking and sports reporting, the Web site attracts a rapidly growing audience of about sixteen million unique visitors a month, according to the company. It provides Web content to partners like The Los... -
March 24, 2011 12:11 PM
Boise Guardian
Pugnacious reporting on Boise's institutions
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BOISE, IDAHO — The Boise Guardian, a one-man muckracking blog in Boise, Idaho, has developed an outsized influence and a regular following, thanks to the energy of its proprietor/ reporter, Dave Frazier. No friend of city hall, Frazier has an Idaho court decision named after him. In 2005, he sued the city of Boise for taking out a loan on a new police station... -
March 24, 2011 11:59 AM
Calbuzz
No-holds-barred political analysis
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APTOS, CALIFORNIA — At political news and analysis website CalBuzz, newly elected California governor Jerry Brown is known simply as "Krusty." His high-spending Republican opponent in the 2010 gubernatorial election, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, is "eMeg." And so, while most Californians still got their earnest doses of 2010 election news from papers like the Los Angeles Times, The... -
December 29, 2010 03:47 PM
Capital (New York)
Observer vets hope to "do well by being good"
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK — When Capital launched in beta in June 2010, it joined an ever-swelling scrum of startups crowding the most covered, and coverable, city on Earth. How did Capital's co-founder Josh Benson, a longtime writer and editor at the New York Observer, hope to break out from the pack? You can find his answer on Capital's About page: "The premise of Capital is... -
March 24, 2011 03:31 PM
Columbus Underground
Entertainment and events coverage with a civic bent
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COLUMBUS, OHIO — Launched in 2001, Columbus Underground was founding editor Walker Evans's answer to a lack of online resources for Columbus's nightlife scene. A devoted fan of his city, Evans grew the site from a social calendar to a resource that helps the local community stay informed on just about everything Ohio's capital city has to offer. With 2.1 million visits and 8.5... -
January 5, 2011 08:47 PM
DoD Buzz
A (mostly) one-man show reporting on the Pentagon
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WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA — Structurally speaking, DoD Buzz is little more than a personal blog dressed up as a full-on news publication. The remarkable thing is that, were it not for more than three-quarters of the stories on the site having the same byline, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference. That's true in terms of volume and quality of content, anyway.... -
March 24, 2011 04:00 PM
Front Porch Forum
Social networking and citizen journalism in northern Vermont
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BURLINGTON, VERMONT — Vermont-based social networking site Front Porch Forum has earned an intense regional following, partly thanks to its success as a venue for hyperlocal citizen journalism. FPF users within 120 small, geographically specific networks write daily and weekly newsletters covering the most quotidian neighborhood news, from church talent shows to snow removal reports. (Since FPF newsletters aren't archived online, we can't provide... -
March 24, 2011 03:38 PM
Gapers Block
Chicago's first city-wide news and culture blog
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CHICAGO, ILLINOIS — Today, Gapers Block is a smartly designed Chicago blog with everything you'd expect to see on a web-specific and geographically focused publication: there's an events calendar, as well as tabs for food, arts, music, and politics. But if Gapers Block looks typical, that's only because of its own influence on the "city blog" genre. When it launched in 2003, Gapers Block... -
January 3, 2011 01:35 PM
Gawker
Pioneers of Internet snark branch out toward general interest news
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK— The rise of Gawker has been well-documented. Founded by Nick Denton in 2003 as "the source for daily Manhattan media news and gossip," the site's urbane tone of bemusement in line with the old Spy, coupled with the Internet's ability to feature near-instant commentary on events, turned the site into a quick, widely imitated success. But the current version of... -
January 3, 2011 04:31 PM
GigaOM
The site offers predictive technology coverage, and has itself been a leader in earning web revenue
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SAN FRANCISO, CALIFORNIA — What started out as a personal blog that combined former Forbes and Business 2.0 reporter Om Malik's mutual interests in technology and opinionated blogging has become a full-fledged business. Despite running an editorial staff of twelve and working as a "jack of all trades" for the site's business and technology sides, Malik still personally writes on GigaOm nearly every day.... -
January 5, 2011 01:35 PM
GlobalPost
A new news agency helping to fill the gaps in foreign reporting
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BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS — GlobalPost has breathed life back into the foreign news agency business. Philip Balboni and Charles Sennott, two ambitious and entrepreneurial international news journalists, founded the for-profit site in 2009. They say the site sets out to have a distinctive American voice and American style of storytelling while reporting on news from every corner of the world. GlobalPost has complete editorial... -
March 24, 2011 01:03 PM
Gothamist
A pioneer of the city blog format
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK — In an over-saturated New York media market, there are few news sources that can claim even a modest percentage of the city's attention. Gothamist's constantly updated coverage of offbeat, interesting, and generally important news stories in New York City lacks the ubiquity of, say, the front page of the New York Post, but it's getting there. The site's New... -
February 23, 2011 06:32 PM
Honolulu Civil Beat
A journalistic "civic square"
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HONOLULU, HAWAII — Honolulu Civil Beat is the brainchild of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and former eBay exec Randy Ching, both of whom attended high school in the Aloha State. The pair shared a common goal, in Omidyar's words, of "empowering citizens and encouraging greater civic participation through media." In keeping with this mission, they envisioned a site that considered audience participation to... -
January 5, 2011 04:06 PM
IGN
The web's definitive video game press
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SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — IGN, which began in 1996 as just another video game site in a flood of similar sites with a similar voice, has become one of the behemoths of Internet journalism, with over 13 million unique visitors a month and a staff size rivaling that of many newspapers. Its success is a model for how a Web site can tap a... -
January 3, 2011 04:54 PM
indieWIRE
Independent film news for fans, filmmakers, and insiders
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK — IndieWIRE is a daily news site and online resource that covers all aspects of specialty and independent film. Founded in 1996, the site is known for its dogged coverage of film festivals around the world and its efforts to support the independent filmmaking community itself. The site's multifaceted approach to film coverage has earned it a following among fans... -
March 24, 2011 03:48 PM
Inside the Hall
The go-to site for Hoosier basketball fanatics
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BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA — What began as a couple buddies blogging about their passion for their alma mater has grown into a mecca for fans of Indiana University basketball. Inside the Hall is the perfect web resource for a region known for its devout basketball culture. Started by Alex Bozich, Ryan Corazza, and Eamonn Brennan in 2007 as a hobby, the site soon grew to... -
January 5, 2011 07:50 PM
LiveScience
Science news at light speed
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK — LiveScience cranks out a high-volume mix of newsy and fun science curios in its efforts to chase after the fickle attentions of Internet wayfarers. Readers are voting approval with their clicks--an impressive three million-plus uniques per month--and the site, with a full-time editorial staff of five, has the relatively rare distinction of being profitable. As part of a... -
March 24, 2011 04:04 PM
Nebraska Watchdog
Think tank-funded investigations for the Cornhusker State
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LAVISTA, NEBRASKA — Nebraska Watchdog, which launched in September 2009 with longtime newsman Joe Jordan as its sole employee, is a one-man shop focusing on investigative and statehouse news in the Cornhusker State. The site is part of a network of sites around the country that share the Watchdog name. Jordan spent twenty-nine years as a political and investigative reporter for KMTV CBS in Omaha,... -
March 24, 2011 04:45 PM
Nevada News Bureau
Think tank-funded statehouse news for the Battle Born State
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HENDERSON, NEVADA — The Nevada News Bureau is a nonprofit organization launched in October 2009 to cover state politics and statehouse news and provide its work free of charge to other outlets in the Battle Born State. It was originally formed under the auspices of Citizen Outreach, a conservative nonprofit think tank run by Chuck Muth, Nevada's leading conservative anti-tax activist. The Bureau was... -
March 24, 2011 03:12 PM
Peach Pundit
Conservative local political commentary from the founders of RedState
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ALPHARETTA, GEORGIA — With its simple design and lively comments section, Peach Pundit resembles many right-leaning political opinion blogs. What may set it apart is its pedigree: Clayton Wagar and Erick Erickson, both among the founders of conservative mega-site RedState, founded Peach Pundit in 2005 as a side project. The site covers Georgia state and local politics with a conversational flair, but,... -
December 29, 2010 04:40 PM
Pitchfork
The prolific online music reviewer/kingmaker
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CHICAGO, ILLINOIS — Founded in 1995 as an Internet alternative to traditional music fanzines, Pitchfork has become a force within the music industry every bit as vital as Rolling Stone or Spin. While somewhat controversial due to its highly opinionated reviews, Pitchfork has a reputation for being able to spot new talent and bring them to a much wider audience. Bands such... -
January 5, 2011 07:36 PM
Politico
The site that defined the twenty-four-hour news cycle
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WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA — On the night of the November 2010 midterms, as election results began trickling in, team Politico held a returns-watching gala at Washington, D.C.'s Newseum. It was the kind of lavish media event usually reserved for legacy media outlets--the Washington City Paper called the party "a throwback to the days when media companies actually made money... There... -
January 3, 2011 05:17 PM
PopMatters
Pop culture criticism with an academic bent
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CHICAGO, ILLINOIS — Back when the Internet was still the sole purview of academics and nerds, journalist Sarah Zupko, then working in marketing at Tribune Media Services, founded a site catering to those specific audiences. That site was not in fact PopMatters, but it was a progenitor of sorts, providing web links for researchers studying pop culture. During the years that followed, Zupko's interests... -
January 21, 2011 03:25 PM
Portland Afoot
Portland-based transportation advocacy
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PORTLAND, OREGON — In a culture where the car is often the primary mode of transportation, the web/print hybrid Portland Afoot has set out to inform Portland citizens about the wide world of transportation alternatives. After leaving his job as a reporter for The Columbian in Vancouver, Wash., founder Michael Andersen felt that he could attract a devoted audience for a new journalism venture... -
March 24, 2011 03:43 PM
Prince of Petworth
Purveyor of D.C. local news and oddities
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WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA — For the Prince of Petworth, a good stroll is the preferred way to travel. In his pre-blogging days, Dan Silverman would take long walks through the streets of Washington, D.C. and observe intriguing urban phenomena: a compelling bit of graffiti, a notable piece of architecture, a curious new business. Soon, however, merely observing such spectacles proved to be insufficient; so... -
January 3, 2011 05:34 PM
Salon
The general interest online magazine has learned to get specific
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SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — Just because Salon is the oldest general interest publication on the Internet doesn't mean that it's been standing still. Founded in 1995 as a Web journalism alternative, producing articles as intelligent and well-written as its peers in print, the website's path has been bumpy, but it is still recognizably the same outlet that first appeared over fifteen years ago. The... -
January 3, 2011 06:03 PM
Slant
Omnivorous pop culture criticism
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WEEHAWKEN, NEW JERSEY — Founded in 2001 as an outlet for its editors' frustrations with their day jobs, Slant Magazine began humbly as a two-man online reviewing operation, with Ed Gonzalez writing about film and Sal Cinquemani writing about music. The two covered only a smattering of the biggest releases in each field, but as other writers began volunteering to work for the site,... -
December 31, 2010 12:24 AM
Slate
The Internet's old guard general interest publication has never slowed down
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK — "Slate's overall mission is to create really intelligent, witty, durable web journalism; [that mission] has been more or less the same since 1996," says David Plotz, the site's editor. Slate is perhaps best known as one of the first publications to prove that a high-quality editorial product could exist and thrive online, but it didn't earn that reputation just... -
January 5, 2011 08:10 PM
Talking Points Memo
The pioneer of web-based political journalism
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK — What began as Josh Marshall's personal blog during the Florida vote recount of November 2000 has since expanded into a profitable multimedia brand of fast-paced political news coverage. The TalkingPointsMemo.com homepage now acts as a conduit to several different frequently-updated news sites and blogs, a poll tracker, and a video channel.... -
December 30, 2010 02:23 PM
TechCrunch
The tech startup news news startup
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SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA — From the very beginning, TechCrunch was part and parcel with Web 2.0. Founded by Michael Arrington in 2005, the site began as a personal technology blog but rapidly transitioned into a full-scale publication, drawing in millions of page views a month by the end of 2007. Unlike most of his peers, Arrington didn't come from a journalistic background, instead studying... -
January 4, 2011 04:37 PM
The Awl
NYC-based cultural witticism from two Gawker alumni
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK — The team at New York City-based The Awl has some advice for anybody waiting on some seed funding to launch their dream startup: don't wait. The Awl launched in early 2009 when founders Choire Sicha, Alex Balk, and David Cho set out to start their own site with little-to-no financing beyond their personal savings. It wasn't much, but "there... -
March 24, 2011 04:14 PM
The Dagger
Sharp local reporting for Harford County, Md.
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BEL AIR, MARYLAND — Harford County, Maryland-based journalist Brian Goodman wanted to start a band. He had a name picked out: The Dagger. After plans for the band fizzled, Goodman decided to take the name and start a local news blog instead. The journalistic ensemble known as The Dagger officially debuted in April of 2007, and has since evolved into a popular alternative news resource... -
January 17, 2011 11:46 AM
The Daily Caller
Tucker Carlson and Co.'s political reporting startup
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WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA — "My politics are relatively well known," conservative media personality Tucker Carlson told CJR in February of 2010, not long after he and former Dick Cheney aide Neil Patel launched political news site The Daily Caller. "But this site is not a pure distillation of my politics. My views are not interesting enough to sustain the company we're... -
January 5, 2011 08:23 PM
The Huffington Post
The online news behemoth grows up
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK — As of the writing of this profile, the "BIG NEWS" header at the top of The Huffington Post's homepage reads: "Unemployment, Katie Holmes, Natalie Portman, Health, Lindsay Lohan, Smarter Ideas, More..." It's the mix of topics that might be floating around the head of a conscientious, politically astute fifteen year old--but given that HuffPost only just entered the second... -
March 24, 2011 12:04 PM
The Iowa Independent
An early member of the American Independent News Network, all grown up
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DES MOINES, IOWA — When Jason Hancock joined the Iowa Independent in the summer of 2008, he was part of a transition for the publication that had been established less than a year before. Originally part of an American Independent News Network (AINN) program that offered short-term funding and training for progressive blogs, the Iowa Independent and sister publications in Colorado and... -
March 24, 2011 12:07 PM
The Iowa Republican
Reporting-heavy partisan news
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DES MOINES, IOWA — While serving as political director of the Republican Party of Iowa in 2007, Craig Robinson had one of those out-there, against-the-grain ideas that rarely survive the journey from imagination to reality. Republicans, he recalls, were having big problems in terms of media coverage. "It wasn't that we didn't have people in our state doing good stuff, it... -
January 19, 2011 04:42 PM
The Locust Fork News-Journal
A one-man purveyor of mobile journalism performance art
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BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA — The Locust Fork News-Journal, like many websites, is wholly devoted to the quirks, whims, emotions, and talents of its founder--in this case, a former newspaper reporter and self-proclaimed champion of the "independent watchdog Web press" named Glynn Wilson. Unlike most sites (including many owned by the "corporate media" Wilson rails against) the News-Journal is stable and profitable--a testament to what can... -
December 31, 2010 01:06 AM
The Root
A strong online presence for the African American press
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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Founded in 2008, The Root continues a long tradition of black-perspective journalism in America, reporting on social, cultural, and political issues through an African American lens. With the Quincy Jones-founded Vibe folding in 2009 before its rebirth as a quarterly, and Essence and others toughing it out in a shrinking magazine market, there's been a notable gap... -
March 21, 2011 05:20 PM
This Land Press
Place-based literary journalism in and about Oklahoma
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TULSA, OKLAHOMA — Earlier this month, This Land Press published the latest installment in its ongoing coverage of Bradley Manning, the army private accused of providing thousands of pages of classified documents to WikiLeaks. The story, by newly minted This Land staff reporter Denver Nicks, looks at a formative period of Manning's life through the eyes of Jordan Davis, Manning's best friend... -
March 24, 2011 11:50 AM
Tucson Sentinel
Continuing an underdog media legacy in Tucson
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TUCSON, ARIZONA — After a 138-year run, the Tucson Citizen, a daily that reported on such historic events as the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, closed its doors in May of 2009. Dylan Smith, the Citizen's online editor, was among the many journalists displaced by the paper's disbanding. Not content to let the Arizona Daily Star claim victory in Tucson's newspaper war, Smith undertook what... -
March 24, 2011 03:16 PM
UtahPolicy.com
Political news for Beehive State political insiders
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SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH — For an example of how to deliver a massive amount of information with minimal manpower, look no further than UtahPolicy.com. Founded in 2004, the site is a news aggregator, but it also aggregates politicians' press releases, pdfs of proposed legislation, and other original materials. All of this is leavened with a dash of original reporting and analysis. <!-- OPEN...
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