About Us
NewsTrust helps people find and share good journalism online.
Our nonprofit news service provides quality news feeds and review tools to help people make more informed decisions as citizens.
NewsTrust.net features a daily feed of news and opinions from mainstream and independent sources, based on ratings from our reviewers. Our web review tools enable people to rate stories for facts, fairness, context and other core journalistic principles — and become more discriminating news consumers in the process.
Community
Our community is growing rapidly and includes news consumers, experienced journalists, educators and students. In 2009, we served over 1.5 million unique visitors through our website and widgets, with over 15,000 registered members by year-end. Our page views and visits nearly doubled in 2009, and we expect this trend to continue as we sign up more partners.
NewsTrust's Executive Director is Fabrice Florin, a former journalist and a digital media pioneer at Apple and Macromedia. Our team includes experienced journalists, technologists and community organizers. Our advisors include Dan Gillmor, Craig Newmark, Howard Rheingold and other digital media innovators from organizations like Google, the Poynter Institute and Stanford University.
Partners
Our partners include leading media organizations like PBS, Huffington Post, Link TV and the Washington Post — as well as journalism teachers and students in schools like Stanford University, Northeastern, Stony Brook, University of Nevada and Arizona State University, to name but a few.
NewsTrust has received two multi-year grants from the MacArthur Foundation, which is our major backer. We have also received support from a wide range of donors, including Ashoka, the Sunlight Foundation, the Mitch Kapor Foundation, the Ayrshire Foundation and the Tides Foundation, as well as Craig Newmark, Doug Carlston, Fabrice Florin, Hap Perry, Terry Gamble and many other private donors.
History
Founded in 2005 and based in Mill Valley, California, NewsTrust is a nonprofit 501 (c)(3) public benefit corporation. We started NewsTrust to address growing problems of information overload, misinformation and mistrust on the Internet, caused by the rise of opinion news and amateur journalism, as well as media consolidation and newsroom cutbacks. We launched our first public beta website for NewsTrust in November 2006 and are now expanding our current service to reach a broader community.
Though we are non-profit and initially funded through donations, we aim to run this venture as a sustainable business, and to generate revenue in the online market to support this project. Revenue streams will include online sponsorships, memberships, licensing and custom services.
More Info
- Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and on the NewsTrust blog.
- For the best experience, join our community and sign up for our free newsletters.
- Once you've signed up, review a story. Check our quick review guide — or our FAQ.
- For more info about NewsTrust, check our blog — or read our full 2009 Report.
- For a visual presentation, check our NewsTrust Slides (or download our PowerPoint).
- To add NewsTrust to your site, help yourself to our free widgets, buttons and tools.
- If you're a news provider, visit our partners page for info on partnerships.
- If you're an educator, check our teacher guides for classroom use.
- If you're a journalist, check our online press kit to learn more about us.
- if you like our free public service, make a donation to support our work.
- For more info, .
What is NewsTrust?

(click to view)
Get a quick overview about NewsTrust from Fabrice Florin, our Executive Director. This short video shows his demo at Stony Brook's News Literacy Conference in March 2009.
(view the slides as a PDF file float:left; or download the PowerPoint deck.)Our Staff
- Fabrice Florin — Executive Director
- David Fox — Technology Director
- Kaizar Campwala — Associate Editor
- Derek Hawkins — Assistant Editor
- Subramanya Sastry — Lead Engineer
Our Directors
- David Cohn — Spot Us
- Henry 'Hap' Perry — GenSpring
- Howard Rheingold — Smart Mobs
- Kim Spencer — Link TV
Our Advisors
- Michael Bugeja — Iowa State University
- Doug Carlston — Public Radio International
- Terry Gamble — Ayrshire Foundation
- Kelly Garrett — Ohio State University
- Dan Gillmor — Arizona State University
- John McManus — Grade The News
- Evelyn Messinger — Citizens Channel
- Bill Mitchell — Poynter Institute
- Craig Newmark — Craigslist



