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Press Kit |
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Thanks for your interest in NewsTrust.net, our social news network devoted to good journalism.
If you're a journalist and would like to write about us, please check our press materials:
• About NewsTrust
• Press Releases
• About our Founder
• Selected Quotes
• Testimonials
• Press Quotes
• Photos, Logos and Buttons
If you have any questions about NewsTrust.net, please email us.
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About NewsTrust
NewsTrust.net helps people find and share good journalism online.
Our nonprofit organization is committed to helping citizens make more informed decisions about their lives and governments. To that end, we offer an integrated online service, which includes a quality news filter, media literacy tools and a civic engagement network.
Our free web site features a daily feed of quality news and opinions from mainstream and independent sources, based on ratings from our reviewers. We rate the news based on quality, not just popularity. Our web review tools enable our members to evaluate fairness, evidence, sourcing and other core journalistic principles.
NewsTrust's Executive Director is Fabrice Florin, a former journalist and a digital media pioneer at Apple and Macromedia. Our advisors include Dan Gillmor, Craig Newmark, Howard Rheingold and other digital media innovators from organizations like Google, the Poynter Institute and Stanford University.
Our partners include leading media organizations like PBS, Scientific American, Huffington Post, Mother Jones, LinkTV, Global Voices, the Council on Foreign Relations -- as well as journalism teachers and students at Stanford University, Northeastern, Stony Brook, University of Nevada and Arizona State.
We launched our first public website for NewsTrust in November 2006. We are now expanding our current beta service and plan to launch an upgraded service with many new features in fall 2008. We expect to sign up major partners and online distributors by the end of 2008.
NewsTrust.net is funded by a multi-year grant from the MacArthur Foundation, to expand our social news network and bring it to a broader community. We have also received support from foundations such as the Ayrshire Foundation, the Mitch Kapor Foundation the Sunlight Foundation and the Tides Foundation, as well as private donors such as Craig Newmark (Craigslist) and Doug Carlston (Public Radio International).
Founded in 2005 and based in Mill Valley, California, NewsTrust is funded through grants and private donations. Though we are nonprofit, we plan to run the venture as a sustainable business, and to generate revenue from online advertising, memberships, licensing and ecommerce to support this project.
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Press Releases
Here are some of our recent press releases:
• American Voters Go on a "News Hunt" for the Best Coverage of the 2008 Election
PBS Engage, P.O.V. and NewsTrust partner to help citizens find quality journalism about the U.S. Presidential Election (07/07/2008).
• The Huffington Post's OffTheBus Partners With NewsTrust To Evaluate Coverage of the Presidential Campaign
Partnership's First Project will be a "News Hunt" for the Best Reporting on Presidential Candidate John McCain (06/02/2008).
• NewsTrust.net Expands with MacArthur Foundation Support
Non-Profit Social News Network Helps People Find Good Journalism Online (11/28/2007).
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About our Founder
A former journalist and a digital media pioneer at Apple and Macromedia, Fabrice Florin founded NewsTrust to help citizens make informed decisions based on quality journalism. He now serves as Executive Director for NewsTrust.net.
Fabrice Florin has an extensive track record as a digital media entrepreneur. Some of Fabrice’s notable accomplishments include:
founding leading-edge wireless content provider Handtap for mobile phones;
launching web entertainment site shockwave.com at Macromedia;
pioneering interactive multimedia content at Apple;
creating a new genre of video journalism for ABC and MTV.
For more info, check Fabrice's online bio.
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Selected Quotes from Fabrice Florin
"The explosion of new media outlets on the web, along with the consolidation of big media and the decline of public trust, have created a range of problems for democracy: information overload, misinformation, mistrust and civic apathy. NewsTrust.net offers a practical solution to these problems, by providing the public with online tools to filter news reporting, evaluate information quality and share trusted content with other citizens."
"Increasingly, commercial news providers are giving their audience more of what they want to hear, rather what they need to know as citizens. Our best hope for reversing this trend is to help citizens develop an appreciation for quality journalism over 'opinion news' or populist infotainment. Social news sites like NewsTrust.net have a unique opportunity to guide this process, by providing the media literacy tools we need to make more informed decisions as citizens."
"The first generation of social news networks mostly measures content popularity, rather than its quality. But as the next generation of social news sites like NewsTrust.net integrate more reliable quality measurements and disciplined editorial processes, our collective news filters will become increasingly useful to the public. "
"NewsTrust.net can help re-build the trust that has been lost between the news media and the public. We hope to partner with traditional news providers to invite their readers to rate stories on their sites, using our state-of-the-art review tools. "
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Testimonials
Here's what our advisors and members are saying about NewsTrust.net, our social news network.
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NewsTrust Advisors |
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"The guys from NewsTrust are building something new, tools that help people find trustworthy news. Their technology allows everyone to work together to rate and filter the news, and figure out what's fair and factual. ... I believe in what these guys are doing, and have contributed my time and money."
Craig Newmark - Craigslist Founder |
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"The potential of this approach is terrific: community involvement in understanding how well journalists -- including bloggers -- do at their jobs (whether it's a professional or amateur activity or something in between). Clearly, this is an early iteration. But the promise is clear. Join up and help out."
Dan Gillmor - Arizona State University |
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"Newstrust addresses in a nonpartisan way the dearth of thoughtful discourse in this country by presenting a model of "citizen journalism" that can be easily accessed, utilized and scaled up by its participants in the way that Amazon, eBay and Craigslist have been. As a parent and a citizen of this country, I am longing for ways to educate our children and each other to discern fact from fiction, truth from "truthiness"."
Terry Gamble - Ayrshire Foundation |
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"I believe strongly in NewsTrust because citizen involvement in returning public trust to journalism is so important to the future of democracy."
Howard Rheingold - Stanford University |
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"There are lots of smart individuals in the world but none as smart, experienced or insightful as all of us together. NewsTrust provides a tool for applying the wisdom of the crowd of news consumers to the news-gathering and communication process.
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Mark Tapscott - Washington Examiner |
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"Newstrust.net allows the public to rate the reliability and quality of news sources. This will gradually be seen as a vital service."
Bill Densmore - Media Giraffe |
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"At a time when corporate profit demands are increasing the commercial bias of mainstream news -- more of what people can be seduced to want and less of what they need -- and when most news on the Web is produced by neojournalists of uncertain competence, News Trust is an invaluable guide to quality."
John McManus - University of San Jose |
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"If News Trust succeeds in an establishing a rater community and a method for finding highly trusted sources, this will be a clear breakthrough; and that is why you have to keep an eye on the site if you care about the future of news."
Jay Rosen - New York University, NewAssignment.net |
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NewsTrust Members |
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"NewsTrust lets me make my own personal contribution to the Fourth Estate, not by writing more news but by helping to find the gems already out there. None of us has the time to consume more than a fraction of 'all the news that is news.' But with NewsTrust we can help ourselves and each other find good journalism."
Mike LaBonte - Haverhill, MA |
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"NewsTrust is an excellent tool for finding reliable sources and sharpening my own analytical skills. The review process helps me evaluate content and quality more effectively, see beyond my own opinions, and become better informed about vital issues."
Marsha Iverson - Seattle, WA |
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"Never before has it been so convenient for people to simply go to the news
sources that tell them what they want to hear. I am hoping my involvement
with News Trust will in some small way help honest journalism win the day."
Kenneth Dale Penn - Miami, FL |
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"I love NewsTrust for its accessibility, diversity and its grass-root nature. I get to evaluate stories good and bad, and then hear what people with different background and experience think of the same stories. We may vehemently disagree with each other, but I learn a lot from what others think."
Lewyn Li - Boston, MA |
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"NewsTrust is one of the most useful ideas I've seen in a long time. The rating system is on-target and relevant, which makes it easy to find the stories that I'm interested in. And I always find pieces that I would have missed on other sites. Great idea, great implementation."
John Taylor - Moraga, CA |
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"NewsTrust is a truly engaging and useful site. I was able to understand and begin using the service almost immediately, thanks to the bookmarklet I put in my toolbar, allowing me to send any page I was viewing to NewsTrust for review."
Autumn Carlson - Boston, MA |
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"NewsTrust is the best online way to stay infomed as a citizen - thanks for smoothing the path for being engaged, and knowing the truth."
R. Paul Herman - San Francisco, CA |
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Press Quotes
Here's what journalists from mainstream and independent media are saying about NewsTrust.net, our citizen news network.
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Mainstream Sources |
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'Next generation' news site
"By building up an archive of ratings and recommendations over time, Newstrust will provide an increasingly comprehensive database of credibility for individual publications and even individual journalists."
The Guardian - Jemima Kiss |
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Deeper than Digg
"The site is looking to judge news articles online by quality, rather than
simple popularity, with a more finely grained evaluation of news stories
than one gets from the gladiatorial thumbs-up, thumbs-down votes by which
stories live and die on Digg. (...) NewsTrust, in essence, aims to counter
the fascination of the inclusive crowd -- picture Britney Spears on a
Linux-based iPod sold by Microsoft -- with the wisdom of the vetted crowd."
InformationWeek - Thomas Claburn |
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Web news opposites
"NewsTrust's more thoughtful approach can yield dramatically different top stories. On Tuesday, NewsTrust's users selected "Top Ten Myths About Iraq 2006," from a blog written by Juan Cole, president of the Global Americana Institute. Digg's top story was "50 Reasons -- why it's great to be a Guy!!" from a blog written by someone named Mike in Los Angeles. "
San Jose Mercury News - Elise Ackerman |
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It ain't easy knowing who you can trust
"The promise that the Newstrust model presents is that wherever our news search and browsing takes us, we'll see aids that will help us determine the quality of an online news source and ratings of individual stories."
Editor & Publisher - Steve Outing |
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Citizens keep watch on the quality of journalism
"Rating with multiple criteria has a curious effect: at first, you're
encouraged to read the article more carefully. And when it's time to rate
the article, you feel an irresistible need to take a second look at certain
sections, to make sure that your verdict will be correct. This invites a
more attentive and critical review, making us better readers. And this is
one of NewsTrust's central objectives."
Le Monde - Francis Pisani (translated from the French) |
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Policing the press
"NewsTrust aims to spotlight excellence. ... It hopes to support itself by offering media outlets its rating service, which would enable readers and viewers to rate stories based on criteria such as fairness, objectivity, factual evidence, clarity and relative importance."
The Baltimore Sun - Nick Madigan |
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From the Daily Me to the Daily We
"If the "wisdom of the crowds" is to be brought to bear on the news, NewsTrust may point the way. ... Not only can users submit stories and rate them on a variety of criteria, such as importance, sourcing, and fairness, but there are also methods of rating the reliability of news organizations, and even of fellow users."
Comment is Free - Dan Kennedy |
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News the Crowd Can Use
"NewsTrust's Fabrice Florin envisions a process in
which established news publications and quality-based crowdsourcing/social
news sites would partner more closely with each other, and leverage each
other's expertise to further the public interest."
Wired News - Patrick Crawford |
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Independent Sources |
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A much-needed effort
"Fabrice and Rory's effort is much-needed in our new, loose, distributed
media world: They want to answer the question, Whom do we trust? Ratings,
reputation, and trust are critically important elements in an open medium
where all can and do publish. ... As more people use NewsTrust, its
worldview is likely to widen ... lots of you should go to NewsTrust and
start rating stories and sources; the more the better."
BuzzMachine - Jeff Jarvis |
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NewsTrust goes way beyond sites like Digg
"Newstrust is an experiment in rating and ranking journalism that goes way beyond sites like Digg or Slashdot. ... If this appeals to you, give it a try."
Instapundit - Glenn Reynolds |
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A tale of two social newsfilter sites
"This San Jose Mercury News story compares the well-known and for-profit
Digg with the lesser-known and probably far more important not-for-profit
Newstrust."
Boing Boing - Xeni Jardin |
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NewsTrust is cool
"It is cool because it will help me find things I might not otherwise find.
It is cool because it might help improve the quality of journalism. It is
cool because it is a worthwhile application of the power of social media,
not a silly application thereof."
Philanthropy 2173 - Lucy Bernholz |
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A new twist: voting for news you trust
"While Digg prides itself on letting users remain anonymous,
NewsTrust requires a full name to register, keeping their reviewers
accountable. That feature alone may prevent special interest groups from
creating a dominant presence on the site."
NewAssignment.net - David Cohn |
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Readers as editors
"Fascinating project, where readers become involved in the editorial process by rating and commenting on news stories. (Motto: Your guide to good journalism.)"
Social Media Group - JD Lasica |
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The Wikipedia of Social News Sites
"Unlike Digg, Reddit, Netscape and other services which base the popularity of online news in a single vote, NewsTrust's rating system is based on 10 voting criteria. ... And yes, NewsTrust is a non-profit venture, which kind of fortifies it as a form of Wikipedia of Social News Sites."
Search Engine Journal - Loren Baker |
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Which News Can You Trust Online?
"NewsTrust is an intriguing online news rating service intended to help people identify
quality journalism."
Poynter Online - Amy Gahran |
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Social ratings for quality journalism
"NewsTrust.net strives to help newshounds find quality journalism. (...) Considering its quest for quality and the following it has already gathered even before its launch, NewsTrust will be a social news site to watch."
Editors Weblog - John Burke |
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Journalism 2.0
"NewsTrust has taken the idea of social networks and applied it to journalism. ... It is one of the most exciting developments I've come across in a while - it really does have transformational possibilities."
A Fine Blog - Allison Fine |
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A quest to bring quality news to the public
"Instead of trafficking in snarky commentary, Newstrust ranks its stories based on quality. A pop-up window appears next to articles and asks users whether multiple points of view are presented, numerous sources are used rather than only a few, and if the author is editorializing or providing an honest assessment of information."
Marin Independent Journal - Tad Whitaker |
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We're very grateful for these thoughtful perspectives about our social news network.
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NewsTrust Photos, Logos and Buttons
You're welcome to use our photos, logos and buttons for your news report or commentary.
• NewsTrust Photos:
Check our photos of the NewsTrust.net team, as well as screen shots from our site, on our preview page, then download them a single Zip file (2Mb).
• NewsTrust Logos:
We invite you to use our logo for NewsTrust.net, available in a variety of sizes, in GIF format. Check these images on our preview page, then download them a single Zip file.
• NewsTrust Buttons:
If you publish news content online, we invite you to add our NewsTrust Buttons on your site, to get quality feedback from your readers, as well as promote your work on NewsTrust.net.
Thank you for your interest in NewsTrust!
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