Spot.Us News

October was a bleak month for traditional news organizations. The venerable Christian Science Monitor announced that it will cease its daily printed paper in April and launch a digital-only edition. The Los Angeles Times recently announced a 10 percent cut in its workforce; Time, Inc. announced cuts of 600 people. Even the chic Conde Nast empire will gut editorial and business staff from The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, WIRED, Vogue and others. With ad dollars tanking and hard times ahead, the business of journalism is struggling with how to pay for its costly trade.

Reporter David Cohn got a grant from The Knight Foundation to experiment with participatory journalism, a model which encourages news consumers to come up with ideas, and funding, for investigative stories. David Cohn joins Word of Mouth with more on Spot.us News, an experiment in community-funded reporting.