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Comment by sparkzilla | Hacker News Reader

Perhaps their first investigation should be on why they need $23 million to create a niche site.

How much do you think it costs to employ 30-40 of the following people for 5 or 10 years?

“reporters and junior reporters, data journalists, researchers, copy editors, line editors, and an assistant managing editor. Graphics editors and designers, a social media editor, a reach/engagement editor, a partnerships lead, developers, and an analytics lead. A Chief Revenue Officer, a Chief of Finance and Administration, and a person to lead business development.”

https://themarkup.org/jobs.html

And during that time there's no revenue? I'm not sure why I'm being downvoted: as a publisher of multiple online and offline projects it seems an extravagant amount for a publication that has a very narrow scope.

It's a non-profit, so probably not much if any advertising, and they'll likely be drawing a lot from ProPublica's model in terms of organization, impact, and growth. ProPublica's annual expenses were over $12 million in 2016, and if you're interested you can get a rough breakdown of where that goes in their 990:

https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/142...

ProPublica has a much, much wider brief, which should translate into why it receives $16 million in annual contributions. OTOH, I can't see how a site that covers a technology niche can support that level of ongoing contributions.

Tech is not really a narrow niche.

Value isn’t always measured in revenue or the size of the audience.

> And during that time there's no revenue?

Yep. Removing ads and removing revenue removes conflicts.

Unless they're investigating Craigslist, perhaps?

I downvoted you (before the flag) because you were snarky. I wish I could do so again for you not disclosing your newsblocks affiliation.

My 'affiliation' with NewsBlocks (I'm the founder and CEO actually) has zero to do with this topic. Are you suggesting that you would add another downvote simply because it is an ICO?

> I'm the founder and CEO actually)

Yes, you have stated that quite often on a bunch of threads.

> has zero to do with this topic

You are incorrect.

> Are you suggesting that you would add another downvote simply because it is an ICO?

Nope

I know you’re being downvoted for snark but I’m going to take a shot at answering this anyway.

In a world where Value is measured in Value in news these days is entirely dictated by the Cost By Impression there’s a huge gap in getting news that’s hugely valuable for only a small audience. In this case it may be an audience of one but he’s apparently willing to both fund the work and share the findings and that’s better than nothing. Perhaps it’s better to ask why people aren’t willing to pay a few bucks to know where their data is going everyday and why we need a single benefactor to make up the difference?

Value can also be gathered through subscriptions.

Yes. And apparently this effort can get by on a single subscriber who pays $20 per decade for his subscription,

Good point.

The expense is the investigations and reporting not the website. That's part of why news organizations have been so hard hit. As soon as they publish information, someone else can republish it for nearly no cost.

I knew it. You're involved with cryptocurrency and equating this to an ICO. It's naive how people in blockchain think startups don't need much cash to build a product.

And you're trying to raise $33m in an ICO? The hypocrisy is just stunning.

https://newsblocks.io/#tokens

No, my comment is based primarily on the narrow scope of the publication, which to my mind, as a lifelong publisher of online and offline media, seems excessive. If they were using an ICO to raise the same amount of money for the same project scope I'd also think that excessive.

As for my own project, we have a much wider goal (to convert all the world's news -- past and present -- into data that can be used as a platform for applications) that obviously requires far more investment than a niche content site.

Like someone else said it costs big money to hire people and retain them over 10 years.

They have a reasonable startup objective where as your startup is taking advantage of naive investors that want to invest in X meets blockchain.

None of the copy on your site communicates that you have even a basic understanding of blockchain. You can't throw blockchain at "fake news" and expect a different outcome.

>your startup is taking advantage of naive investors that want to invest in X meets blockchain.

False. Please tell me another technology that will allow us to build a decentralised, failure-tolerant, censorship- and tamper-resistant archive of all the world's news, that has been converted into data and independently verified, and that anyone can use to create news applications.

To avoid any accusation of threadjacking, if you'd like to discuss NewsBlocks further, please do so on the 'Show HN' page page: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17947364

Reply on news.ycombinator.com