UPDATE: Due to an unexpected outpouring of support for the continuation of the web site and the interest of various parties to find a way to keep the web site live and evolving, the shutdown date has been pushed back to June 30, 2015, in order to give these parties sufficient time to formulate and begin to implement a rescue plan. We’ll keep everyone posted.
It is with great sadness and much regret that, after ten successful years, the Board of Directors of GroundReport.com has decided to shut down the site. Citizen journalism has evolved since GroundReport.com’s founding and its ‘article on the desktop’ approach to new media is, frankly, out of date. Today, new media is more about images, video and short text on mobile devices. Updating GroundReport.com to the current requirements of the new media service would require a rewrite of the site code and the creation of new mobile apps.
Unfortunately, GroundReport.com no longer has a technical visionary on its management team who can drive the rejuvenation of the service nor the funding available for such a project. GroundReport.com donors have been very generous over the years supporting GroundReport.com’s vision of Open Content, but today they have decided that investing the funds to underwrite a refresh of the technology to serve a mobile audience will not be money well spent.
When GroundReport.com was started in 2006, the company’s management expected the web site to be self-funding after a start-up period. Its economic model was based on serving banner ads and back-links embedded in the articles and sharing the advertising revenue with the reporters. This business model worked for many years but with the smartphone revolution beginning in 2007 with the release of the iPhone, the revenue of the site has slowly deteriorated to the point where the business model is not longer viable. To keep the site going now requires monthly infusions of cash from the donors to cover its expenses.
Finally, the original purpose of GroundReport was give ‘voice’ to those disenfranchised by the mass media. GroundReport.com accomplished that goal and had a real impact on many lives. Today, however, there are many outlets for free speech on the Internet and citizen journalists can get published on alternative sites and apps.
The May 31, 2015 shutdown date was chosen to give our loyal reporters the chance to print and save their articles before the site goes dark. We are going to keep a backup of the site and its original content on the off-chance that new donors and a technical visionary will step forward and reinvent GroundReport.
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