Crowd-funded tech journalism project Matter raises $140k

A crowd-funded digital journalism project that raised $50,000 in just 38 hours has almost trebled its initial target, bringing in more than $140,000 in a month-long funding round.

Matter, which aims to provide a new outlet for long-form science and technology stories, has been backed by 2,566 individuals and businesses on crowd-funding platform Kickstarter, raising $140,201.

The project is being led by journalists Jim Giles and Bobbie Johnson - who discussed the plan with Journalism.co.uk last month.

Johnson said at the time: "We certainly never expected to get the response we did. If we were out there to prove there was some public interest in what we were doing I think hitting our goal in 38 hours proved something."

The Matter founders tweeted this weekend: "You helped us raise a mind-blowing total of $140,201. Not sure we have the words to thank you all properly. Now just the little matter of getting started to deal with. Looks like it's time to get to work."

Matter will commission and publish long-form journalism about technology and science issues every week, on a range of devices. 

Its project page on Kickstarter says: "Good journalism isn't cheap: it takes time and money for great reporters to do their best work. That means we're going to have to charge.

"But not much: we're aiming for around 99 cents per story. It's an experiment to see if independent journalism, done right, can fill the gap left by mainstream media."

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