Crowdfunding Investigative Projects Turns Readers into Editors

In a search for cash to finance investigative journalism projects, an independent Brazilian news agency is trying to turn readers into editors. The idea was greeted with great interest during a panel discussion this week at the four-day, semi-annual Global Investigative Journalists Conference (GIJC2013) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The idea is simple: those who help finance the agency can choose what journalists should investigate. With this concept, Agência Pública raised almost $30,000 from 808 backers for a project called Reportagem Pública (Public Report).