1. NewsTrust
Your Guide to Good Journalism
Presented by:
Fabrice Florin
Executive Director
NewsTrust
(415) 388-6688
fab@newstrust.net
www.newstrust.net

2. What is NewsTrust?
• a social news network focused on good journalism
• we help people find quality news and information
• we rate the news based on quality -- not popularity
• we’re nonprofit and offer these free public services:
 quality news feeds
 news literacy tools
 civic engagement network

3. Our Team
Managers: Board Members:
• Fabrice Florin - Executive Director • Terry Gamble - Ayrshire Foundation
(formerly with Apple, Macromedia) • Henry ‘Hap’ Perry - GenSpring
• David Fox - Technology Director • Kim Spencer - Link TV
(formerly with Lucasfilm Games) • Fabrice Florin - NewsTrust
Staff: (partial) Advisors: (partial)
• Kaizar Campwala - Associate Editor • Doug Carlston – Public Radio Intl.
• Adam Florin - Web Engineer • Mike Dixon - Google News
• Derek Hawkins - Assistant Editor • Dan Gillmor - Arizona State University
• Subramanya Sastry - Web Engineer • Jim Kennedy - Associated Press
• Bill Mitchell - Poynter Institute
Editors: (partial)
• Evelyn Messinger - Citizens Network
• Michael Bugeja - Iowa State University
• Betsy Morgan - Huffington Post
• David Cohn – Spot.Us
• Craig Newmark - Craigslist
• Dan Kennedy - Northeastern
• Howard Rheingold - Stanford University
• Mike La Bonte - and 14 more …
• Jay Rosen – New York University

4. Our Partners
Here are some of our first partners and backers.
Media Partners: Educational Partners: Foundations/Donors:
PBS (News Hour / P.O.V., etc.) Stanford University MacArthur Foundation
Washington Post University of Nevada Ashoka
Scientific American Arizona State University Google, Inc.
Huffington Post Northeastern University Sunlight Foundation
InstaPundit Poynter Institute Tides Foundation
Council on Foreign Relations University of Santa-Clara Ayrshire Foundation
Global Voices Craig Newmark
Link TV Widget Partners: Doug Carlston
Mother Jones AFP (Agence France Presse) Mitch Kapor
New America Media Slate (Doonesbury.com) Hap Perry
PolitiFact Yahoo News and other private donors
and many others

5. Our Challenge

6. The Case for News Literacy

7. A Hybrid News Filter

8. Our Web Site - Home Page

9. Quick Review Form - Politico
Review Form

10. Full Review Form - WashPost
Review Button
Full
Review
Form

11. Story Page - Reviews

12. Source Profile

13. Member Profile

14. Member Profile

15. Our Community
Our community of reviewers is
widespread, educated, and mature.
Early adopters share liberal views. Half of
our members are experienced journalists
and three-quarters have college degrees.
Age: Education:
Adults 18-34 27% Post-graduate 42%
Adults 35-49 27% College 33%
Adults 50+ 46% High school 25%
Journalism: Politics:
5+ years 22% Left 62%
1-4 years 28% Center 27%
No experience 50% Right 11%
Source: Google Analytics/MySQL - Jan. 2009

16. Trust Network
Our community is organized in different groups, based on trust and experience. As
members gain trust in our network, their validation levels rise and their ratings are
weighted accordingly.
Group Size: Validation Level:
8 staff Staff 5
22 editors Editors 4
239 hosts Hosts 3
5,294 reviewers Reviewers 2
10,264 members Members 1
103,633 visitors Visitors -
Source: Google Analytics/NewsTrust - May. 2009

17. News Quality Ratings
Citizens using our tools rate journalistic quality with consistent accuracy.
<< bad journalism good journalism >>
Original version
Degraded version
Original version
Degraded version

18. 2009 Partnerships
Partner Features:
• News Hunts – community engagement
• Widgets – most trusted news & information
• Buttons – quality feedback from reviewers
News Hunts:
• Bush Legacy - with Washington Post
• War in Gaza - with Link TV and Yahoo News
• Money - with Consumers Union and Stanford
• Education - with Ashoka Foundation
• Black Experience - with PBS, Tavis Smiley, USC
• Education Reform - with PBS, NOW

19. A Typical News Hunt
Here is one way in which NewsTrust collaborates with our media and educational partners:
• Featured topic: Obama’s First 100 Days
• Media partner: PolitiFact
• Educational partner: University of Nevada
• Our goal: to find great journalism about Obama
• Our work: all week, our members submit and review stories
• Results: we share our top stories and findings for a week

20. News Hunt PBS - Home Page

21. PBS NewsHour On-Air Promo

22. News Hunt Welcome Page
Small
Widget

23. HuffPo News Hunt - Home Page
Call to
Action

24. Add value to your site Mockup
Review Button
Widget

25. Widgets (Slate)
Large
Widget
www.newstrust.net/widgets/

26. Widgets (Yahoo)
RSS
Feed
www.newstrust.net/widgets/

27. NewsTrust in Education
Here are some of the educational activities provided by NewsTrust and our partners.
Group Presentation
& Discussion
(Stanford)
Online Research
& Reviews
(U. Nevada)
Team Findings
& Blog Posts
(Arizona State U.)

28. Why Partner with NewsTrust?
Collaborating with NewsTrust serves these goals:
• help build a public appreciation for good journalism
• promote quality news and opinion to a broad community
• surface the best news coverage on your site
• encourage civil social interaction and tolerance
• develop news literacy skills and civic engagement
• enhance user experience, increase customer loyalty

29. New Services and Tools
• Facebook/Twitter Integration
• Member/Source Widgets
• News & Opinion Listings
• Mainstream & Independent
• Email & RSS Feeds
• Review Buttons
• Smart Bookmarklets

30. New Home Page Mockup #2 (2009)

31. New Toolbar

32. Smart Feeds
• newsworthy links from around the web
• from greatest minds in 'link journalism’
• Clay Shirky, Jay Rosen + hundreds more
• high quality news stories round-the-clock
• aggregate expertise from other networks
• a smart way to filter Twitter, Digg, etc.
• helps citizens find timely, diverse information

33. Groups
• recommendations from friends & like minds
• political, demographic & affinity groups
• special groups for sources & partners
• group pages show their top rated stories
• compare group ratings with each other
• compare your own rating with different groups
• helps increase diversity in our networks

34. My News
• a personal feed of good journalism
• stories that match your interests
• filter by source, topic or reviewer
• add custom filters to your feed
• share your news with your friends
• helps citizens get more informed

35. Coming Soon NewsTrust Anywhere
Rating
Widget Listing
Widget
Mockup

36. The NewsTrust Difference
• NewsTrust fills a real need through:
- quality news feeds
- news literacy tools
- civic engagement network
• we help citizens make more informed decisions
• we add value for our partners and their customers
• when citizens and journalists collaborate, everybody wins

37. How you can help
• Sign up as a member: newstrust.net/signup/
• Check our review tips: newstrust.net/help/reviewer/
• Spread the word: newstrust.net/about/
• Get our widgets: newstrust.net/widgets/
• Add our buttons: newstrust.net/buttons/
• Sign up as a partner: newstrust.net/partners/