Digital Publishing
1 min read

Canadian news outlet to only source stories from its members

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In a bid to find a new business model to support local journalism, Canadian news organisation Taproot Edmonton is only publishing stories sourced from ideas paying members share on its online platform for the community.

The most popular ideas are then shared on the organisations virtual newsroom on Slack, where freelancers pitch to pick up the stories.

“Taproot Edmonton is our attempt to figure out what is next in local news,” explained Mack Male, co-founder of Taproot Edmonton.

“Local journalism all around the world has been having a difficult time with the existing business models, so we wanted to figure out if there is another way to support local news, content that people often lament the loss of when a newspaper downsizes or shuts down.”

The news organisation, which began publishing in September this year, enables everyone to view its content, but members, who pay either $100 (£60) per year or $10 (£6) a month, are able to log into the online Story Garden and suggest ideas for future articles by asking how and why questions about things they want to know.

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