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Comment by morisy | Hacker News Reader

Journalism: Based on bringing transparency. Secretjournalismstartup: Clouded in secrecy.

While this dichotomy has always been present in news media (some ink-stained retches, including yours truly, will protect scoops and anonymous sources to the grave), not knowing who is really behind this beyond people "funded and advised by YCombinator, the people behind Reddit, posterous, and Justin.tv" doesn't encourage faith. Maybe the mystique will make up for it.

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Based on the submitter's username, stealthyc2010, it should be clear that the startup is still in "stealth mode". This is somewhat common in the tech startup world. The veil will almost assuredly be lifted before they launch.

I completely understand that, and tried to make my comment come as a critique rather than a criticism. Two of the most important factors in how much people trust news, however, is a) the source's reputation and b) who is paying for its generation, and how.

Asking journalists to potentially sign on without disclosing the latter can be a risky professional move for them, which could have a negative effect on the venture's success.

Agreed. I write a reasonable amount of freelance print tech copy and have been looking for something interesting like this to move online.

But the secrecy is putting me right off :(. I guess they will give you more insight via email.

(getting into serious online journalism is pretty hard btw)

We were only trying to be secret to not build hype when the product isn't ready. Backfire! We hope you aren't put off. We are going to be as open and transparent as we can be.

(I should point out in that case that I'm only using this name for consistency. I'm pbiggar on HN.)

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