Spot.us, a very new web project thinks you might.Take this pitch, for example. It's from a reporter who wants to cover the rise of a new Hooverville-actual tent cities popping up across the Bay Area. Pretty fascinating I think. And now that 17 people have agreed and chipped in a total of $550, it's a go. (They have fact checkers assigned to the story and everything.)As novel as all this is, the one feature of Spot.us' pitches that really struck me is the "How will this reporting help?" section on each page. It implies a certain functionality requirement to the stories that I don't know if most media outlets are really thinking about quite so specifically-us included. I wonder what the world of news and reporting looks like if more pitches had to go through this kind of process before they got the greenlight (a place we very well may be headed as traditional news organizations fold up and cut their ranks).Anyhow, if you're in the mood to help make some journalism happen (in Bay Area for now at least) here's their list of stories seeking funding. Your donation is tax deductible, and should a paying news organization buy exclusive rights to the content, the donations are reimbursed. If not, it's CC-licensed.
I can think of worse ways of spending $25.
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