2. A CONTEST TO
ACCELERATE INNOVATION
The Knight News Challenge is a five-year media
innovation contest designed to reward new ideas for
gathering, sharing and using local news and information.
News Challenge winners must:
1 Use innovative
open-source 2 Distribute news
in the public 3 Test in a local
community
digital technology interest
Interim Review 2009 Knight News Challenge Winners
3. WHO DID
WE FUND? 2,323
APPLICANTS
9
WINNERS
$ 1.9M
AWARDED
6 3
NON-PROFITS INDIVIDUALS
Overview of 2009 Knight News Challenge
Winners by Type & Grant Amount
City Circles /
Daily Phoenix
Virtual Street $101K
Corners
$40K Councilpedia
$250K
Data
Visualization Ushahidi CMS Upload
$244K $70K Utility
$ 11K
Mobile Media MediaBugs START UP
DocumentCloud $335K
NEW PROJECTS Toolkit PROJECTS
$719K
AT EXISTING $200K
ENTITIES
SCALED UP PROJECTS
AT EXISTING ENTITIES
Interim Review 2009 Knight News Challenge Winners
4. A PROJECT DocumentCloud
$719K
THAT SCALED A platform to help reporters annotate
and share source documents.
AWARDED
CASE STUDY
Page Views JUNE
111,589 Document uploads
Document Uploads 777,698 Page views AS OF MAY 2012
300K
DOCUMENT UPLOADS
JANUARY JUNE
Opened document Release of Sarah Palin’s
2012
MARCH
repository to public
searches
emails and documents
from Rod Blagojevich’s 4.6MTOTAL PAGES
corruption scandal
Initial release of
cause spike in traffic
51K
Document Viewer, a
module for extracting
text, rendering images REPORTER ANNOTATIONS
and creating PDFs
1.8K
ACTIVE USERS
2009 2010 2011 2012
600
ORGANIZATIONS
Interim Review 2009 Knight News Challenge Winners
5. A PROJECT MediaBugs
THAT STALLED A service that allows readers to
report errors in media coverage
$335K AWARDED
CASE STUDY
Despite adding multiple components ERRORS (’BUGS’) JUNE
17 bugs filed
FILED BY READERS
over time, MediaBugs was unable
to gain traction.
OCTOBER On average
APRIL Tracking software opened to 7 bugs filed
Launch of MediaBugs error organizations across the US per month
reporting site. MediaBugs
Widget released at the APR 2000 MAR 2012
same time. NOVEMBER
Launch of Report an Error Alliance,
8,415 an advocacy effort for transparency
PAGE VIEWS in error reporting. Page Visits
Page Views
FEBRUARY
Wordpress plugin released
1,500
PAGE VIEWS
APR 2010 2011 JAN 2012
Interim Review 2009 Knight News Challenge Winners
6. LESSONS
LEARNED
TAKEAWAYS
No. 1
A NEED YOU
CAN FEEL
Resolve a pressing problem
for a well-defined audience.
Having a single focus provides
clear goals and refines the
product to meet the needs
of the target audience.
Interim Review 2009 Knight News Challenge Winners
7. LESSONS
LEARNED
TAKEAWAYS Networks
Support outreach
and broker
No. 2 Experience
partnerships
Get access to legal
THE WISDOM
assistance to incorporate
and auditors to help with
payroll and bookkeeping
THAT NURTURES
INNOVATION
The benefits of having
an experienced
institution to house
your project and Leadership
Combine a startups focus
grow your ideas. on strong tech and coding
skills, with broader project
management capacities
Interim Review 2009 Knight News Challenge Winners
8. LESSONS
LEARNED
TAKEAWAYS
No. 3
CODE LEVEL
PRACTICES
Integrate open source code
development into all aspects
of a project’s design.
To build a robust community
of developers and contributors:
1 2 3
Translate, modify and Release code early and often, with Build individual components, knowing
use existing code documentation that makes it easy that some elements may have uses
for others to follow and contribute beyond the focus of your project
Interim Review 2009 Knight News Challenge Winners
9. LESSONS
LEARNED Internal evangelists
TAKEAWAYS enable adoption
within their own
media organizations
No. 4
CULTIVATE
EVANGELISTS
Identify web-savvy advocates in
influential newsrooms to champion
the product and overcome barriers Evangelists also serve
as trouble-shooters
to adoption. providing quick and
easy support for other
potential adopters
Interim Review 2009 Knight News Challenge Winners
10. HOW WE CAN
IMPROVE
AT KNIGHT
TAKEAWAYS
BETTER
DIALOGUE
Provide opportunities for more
frequent communication between
foundation staff and grantees. Stay
up-to-date on winners’ progress
and troubleshoot as needed.
Interim Review 2009 Knight News Challenge Winners
11. HOW WE CAN
IMPROVE
AT KNIGHT
TAKEAWAYS
ATTENTION
TO MARKETING
Help grantees plan for their marketing
and outreach needs as part of their
project budgeting. Use Knight’s own
networks and communications to
further assist grantees.
Interim Review 2009 Knight News Challenge Winners
12. HOW WE CAN
IMPROVE
AT KNIGHT
TAKEAWAYS
NETWORKING
WITH
INTENTION
Provide additional ways for news challenge
winners to connect with each other through
small gatherings throughout the year in addition
to the annual MIT Civic Media Conference.
2009 Interim Review Knight News Challenge
13. WHAT’S
NEXT
The review of 2009 winners is part of a larger review
of the News Challenge. We are continuing to track
the results of the 2010 and 2011 winners.
‘07 ‘08 ‘09 ‘10 ‘11 ‘12
Here’s what we’re doing in 2012:
1 MORE
Three contests 2 FASTER
Each contest runs 3 FOCUSED
Themed contests
in 2012 for 12 weeks focused on specific
issues