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ProPublica to Expand Support Base With Press+ Platform

Pulitzer-winning Investigative Newsroom to Use Metered Model

New York, November 22, 2010—Press+, the e-commerce platform created by Journalism Online that enables digital news publishers to collect revenue from readers, today announced that Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative online newsroom ProPublica is now using the Press+ system to collect donations from readers to support their vital content. In addition to its existing services for online, for profit news sites, Press+ offers nonprofit journalism sites, including ProPublica, a platform to prompt their most active readers with targeted donation requests as they access the site’s content. Readers can make one-time donations or recurring donations to help fund the important missions of these public interest news sites.

ProPublica joins the New Haven Independent and The Institute for War and Peace Reporting, two other nonprofit news publishers who are already using the Press+ system to increase reader support. ProPublica and The New Haven Independent are both grantees of The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation which has made an arrangement with Press+ to help expand the reader donor base toward the goal of long term sustainability. Additional Knight grantees are scheduled to launch the Press+ platform over the next few weeks.

ProPublica, which began publishing in June 2008, is an online, nonprofit newsroom with 33 full-time journalists led by Paul Steiger, the former managing editor of The Wall Street Journal. ProPublica aims to spotlight wrongdoing and abuses of power by government, business and other institutions to spur reform. The organization focuses on investigative stories, which have been increasingly squeezed out of the budgets of traditional newspapers.

“The Press+ system offers ProPublica an additional way to seek support from our frequent readers, building on our efforts to sustain investigative journalism,” said Richard Tofel, General Manager of ProPublica. “The software allows us to seek donations just as readers are accessing our content. Press+ also permits us to adjust how quickly readers are asked to contribute, and the language of our request, as we learn more about what to expect. We want especially to thank the Knight Foundation for facilitating our use of this new tool.”

“ProPublica’s general mission and fabulous work, acknowledged by its recent Pulitzer win, can now be supported by its most active supporters – its readers” in a way that offers Pro Publica a sustainable, long term business model,” said Steven Brill, co-founder of Press+. “While most nonprofit news sites simply ask for donations somewhere on their websites, asking the most engaged readers with the Press+ system and tying that ask with reminders about the importance of the specific content they have just read not only makes it easy for donors to support their favorite content and/or news site, but allows complete flexibility on the part of publishers who want to target that reader with a specific message while controlling the frequency of the ask,” Brill added. “Moreover, as Press+ continues to add customers who are buying subscriptions or making donations across other websites around the world, those who already have Press+ accounts will simply be able to make these donations to support ProPublica’s trailblazing journalism with one click, because these readers will already have an account and will not have to go through the hassle of supplying registration and credit card information.”

About Press+
The Press+ e-commerce platform, with over 1600 affiliates, launched on news sites across the country this past summer. It allows publishers to choose and adjust multiple options for paid access continually, with each publisher selecting its own business model, offerings, and pricing. This includes the “metered model” under which many readers will continue to access sites for free, while the most engaged readers will be asked to pay a modest charge for full access. Press+ gives consumers the convenience of one account and password to access their favorite web sites.  For more information: www.mypressplus.com.

About ProPublica
ProPublica is an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest. In 2010, it was the first online newsroom to win the Pulitzer Prize.  With the largest news staff in American journalism devoted solely to investigative reporting, ProPublica is supported by philanthropy and provides the articles it produces, free of charge, both through its own web site and to leading news organizations selected with an eye toward maximizing the impact of each article.  For more information, please visit www.propublica.org.

Contacts
Cindy Rosenthal, Press+, 212-332-6406
Mike Webb, ProPublica, 917-512-0233