Arianna Huffington - Copyright free - Wikimedia Commons
Arianna Huffington, the famous figurehead for The Huffington Post, announced in April the launching of a new non-profit branch of the news blog giant, called The Huffington Post Investigative Fund. With a neatly truncated nickname like the HuffFund (yes that’s three f’s in consecutive order), how could they go wrong, right? In all seriousness, the HuffFund is one of the first large efforts by an online organization to run completely non-profit. Regardless of whether it succeeds or not, the HuffFund will serve as a prototype for online news blogs and may provide insight into the future of investigative journalism.
The HuffFund specializes in medium length, “outside of the box” investigative journalism. While the big guns like USA Today, WaPo and NYT are equipped with full teams of investigative reporters, the HuffFund operates with only a handful of staff, interns and -most notably- freelance and layed-off reporters. Since it is all online, it utilizes its blog, video, photo and audio –usually two or more forms of media per story. I really like that the stories are not headlines one would normally see in the big papers (see Anatomy of an Attack Ad and EPA Fails to Inform Public About Weed-Killer in Drinking Water).
I think the HuffFund will excel with stories like the attack ad investigation, because the reporters have the publishing flexibility to orchestrate in-depth stories and 5 minute plus videos that seem more like mini documentaries than news segments. This story in particular is captivating because it sets a scene for the reader that many have seen recently, ads in protest of health care reform. By the fourth graf, the reporters are already showcasing their investigative muscle with references to public records and a rundown of the original launchers of political commentator Dick Morris’ new anti-reform campaign “The League of American Voters.”
The only flaw with this story, and other HuffFund stories like it, is that NOT ENOUGH PEOPLE ARE READING THEM. I say this because the website is still a bit archaic in design, and there are only a few publications outside of HuffPo that are covering the opening of the HuffFund. The website could be a little more user-friendly, but it does have quick photo enlarging qualities and a nice “Related Stories” menu for each story.
With a $1.7 million budget, the HuffFund will be around for at least a year or two, if nothing ever catches on. But with a staff of seasoned journalists and former editors from the Washington Post, 60 Minutes, Newsweek and the Chicago Tribune, the HuffFund should at least have a few swings at breaking some big stories before the well runs dry.
This site is excellent, and yes, could be great if only there were more people reading it. It’s going to be difficult to keep up funding for a project like this beyond the two years you mentioned without being able to show that the website is getting a lot of traffic.
Personally, I’m also turned away the moment I get to the site simply by the design. No offense to our class blogs, but it looks like the site was created in Wordpress. I’m sure with just basic html knowledge and a decent Wordpress theme, anyone in our class could create a site nearly identical to the Huff Post Fund. It’s not a terrible design, but you expect more for millions of dollars and a professional organization.
Hello,
Ugh, I liked! So clear and positively.
Miato
Interesting, did you plan to continue this article?
Ivan