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ThePublicRecord.ca: Hamilton's City Hall Watchdog

Making Canada's first crowdfunded journalist and ThePublicRecord.ca sustainable for the future.

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ThePublicRecord.ca: Hamilton's City Hall Watchdog

ThePublicRecord.ca: Hamilton's City Hall Watchdog

ThePublicRecord.ca: Hamilton's City Hall Watchdog

ThePublicRecord.ca: Hamilton's City Hall Watchdog

ThePublicRecord.ca: Hamilton's City Hall Watchdog

Making Canada's first crowdfunded journalist and ThePublicRecord.ca sustainable for the future.

Making Canada's first crowdfunded journalist and ThePublicRecord.ca sustainable for the future.

Making Canada's first crowdfunded journalist and ThePublicRecord.ca sustainable for the future.

Making Canada's first crowdfunded journalist and ThePublicRecord.ca sustainable for the future.

Joey Coleman
Joey Coleman
Joey Coleman
Joey Coleman
12 Campaigns |
Hamilton, Canada
$5,218 USD $5,218 USD 129 backers
100% of $5,194 Fixed Goal Fixed Goal
Highlights
Mountain Filled 12 Projects Mountain Filled 12 Projects

Investing to Make Joey Coleman and ThePublicRecord.ca Sustainable

Joey Coleman's ThePublicRecord.ca is Hamilton's source for City Hall and civic affairs coverage .

The goal of The Public Record is simple: to provide informed coverage of Hamilton’s communities and civic affairs to enable all residents to fulfill the responsibilities of citizenship by ensuring more transparent, good civic government that is accountable to all residents of Hamilton.

To continue doing this, ThePublicRecord.ca is launching a 10 day "all or nothing" $7500 crowdfunding campaign to purchase equipment and make investments to build towards sustainability:

  • $3800 to purchase a laptop with video streaming capability to add graphics, picture-in-picture, and live tweets to live web streams of public meetings and events;
  • $850 for a rolling case to move equipment between our office and City Hall to ensure coverage of unexpected news such as press conferences.
  • $600 to purchase a SSL certificate and upgrade web hosting to secure the website to process monthly patron subscriptions using Stripe. (Securing the website will also boost Google placement and is the first step towards implementing secure anonymous whistle-blowing tips page)
  • $1000 to pay ThePublicRecord.ca's office rent for February and March.
  • $750 to purchase one-year subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud for video and podcast editing. (Purchase of yearly needed due to increasing costs of currency exchange to USD)
  • $500 for campaign costs (transaction & Indiegogo fees, Facebook promotion to reach supporters)

The campaign goal is to reach 200 supporters contributing with maximum contributions of $100. You can make your contribution early in the campaign, knowing that if the campaign is not successful, you will receive a full refund.

Past campaigns have seen many large contributions above this amount.

This is an all or nothing campaign that needs to prove my watchdog journalism can become sustainable with 200 supporters prepared to become monthly patrons to make my work sustainable and stronger.

Read Funding High-Quality Journalism and the 1% Internet Rule: My Plan to Become Sustainable and Grow for the full explanation of the business model for the future of sustainable watchdog journalism.

I ask supporters limit contributions to a maximum of $100 to this campaign. To become sustainable as I'll be asking you to sign up to be a monthly patron in March using PayPal or Stripe.

Funding Building Foundation for Sustainable

Following this campaign:

  • ThePublicRecord.ca will be upgraded to support monthly patron contributions to become sustainable;
  • The video laptop will enable more informative video and live tweets;

Image: Video with Live Tweets

Image: Video with Document Picture-in-Picture

  • Video highlights and audio podcasts of meeting as the laptop can process highlights while streaming video;
  • More live events including topics such as Inclusionary Zoning, Six-Storey Wood Frame Structures, and the future of Jackson Square as City Council looks at selling it.
  • Newsletter - I haven't been able to produce one since my laptop broke last summer.

The Patron Model to Support Watchdog Journalism

To be effective in providing a public goal, public interest journalism must be accessible to all. To be sustainable, it must be funded.

Based on the 90-9-1 model, 9% of readers are willing to become patrons with a modest monthly contribution that will help support the operating costs of the outlet. At $10 per month, it will take approximately 800 of these patrons to fund the operating costs of hiring one investigative journalism.

1% of readers will become patrons with a monthly contribution similar to what they pay for their newspaper subscription at $20 per month. It takes approximately 400 of these patrons to fund an investigative journalist.

As a perk for patrons, they'll receive advance access to tickets for panel discussions, with $20 patrons getting first, and will have access to a future mobile app that will include audio-only versions of web streams.

The monthly patron model is the only one that can sustain watchdog journalism.

It enables an outlet to assign journalists with a long-term commitment to fearless journalism, to launch investigations into problems needing solutions, and to be free from undue influence from those we cover.

The 2015 Plan To Grow The Public Record

For 2015, the goal for The Public Record is to focus on building the infrastructure for growth in the fall.

The current campaign which will fund equipment and web server upgrades.

In spring, there will be a small campaign to purchase microphones, headphones, sound proofing materials and other equipment to create a small podcast studio in the office. This equipment will also serve to podcast panel discussions in the community.

ThePublicRecord.ca will make a significant investiment of time this summer to build the backend of the website to support future database apps (a building development tracker is top of the list), more audio and video content, better real-time news updates, and to support a mobile app for patrons.

The mobile app will enable patrons to get customized notifications, having a real-time tip forum for information sharing and collaborative news gathering, and an audio-only version of live streams. (Audio streaming on the Internet is more complex and costly than audio, economics of YouTube and scale)

The real growth opportunity for fulfilling the mandate of public interest journalism is in collaboration and mobile. It’s resource intensive. I hope we’ll build a mobile app and website that can be shared with other watchdog startups that will form in other Canadian cities once ours is sustainable and successful.

The Benefits to All

Your support enables everyone to:

  • Benefit from a more informed community conversation;
  • Accurate, Responsible real-time reporting;
  • Access to public information that no other media outlet releases.

Every City Council meeting, every City Council committee, every City Council sub-committee, School Board meetings, Public meetings, Local Events, Art Crawls, Town Halls, and more - that's the journalism your contribution supports.

Other Ways You Can Help

Please help spread the word about the campaign: .

  • Share on your Facebook, Twitter, Blog, and other sites

Participate:

  • Watch the livestreams;
  • Join the Twitter conversation; and
  • Remain engaged!

And that’s all there is to it.

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Choose your Perk

Supporter

Currency Conversion $7 USD
$10 CAD
Thank you! This perk package includes button, free hug, on-screen thank you in credit roll after video replay, and recognition on website.
13 claimed

Builder

Currency Conversion $21 USD
$30 CAD
Thank you. This perk package includes a button, hug, on-screen thank you credit during a committee meeting, and recognition on website. (Hug is optional)
29 claimed

Builder x2

Currency Conversion $42 USD
$60 CAD
This package includes a button, pre-registration for events, on-screen thank you credit during a committee meeting or community event, hug (optional), and recognition on website.
7 claimed

Super-Duper Mega Builder

Currency Conversion $69 USD
$100 CAD
This package includes a button, pre-registration for events, on-screen thank you credit during a Council Meeting community event, hug (optional), and recognition on website.
15 claimed
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