YouComm News

YouCommNews was an Australian non-profit organization established in 2010 by freelance journalist Melissa Sweet and Margaret Simons of the Public Interest Journalism Foundation. It facilitated the crowdsourcing of ideas and funding for community-driven journalism, connecting journalists, publishers and the public: members of the public could propose story ideas or fund a pitch, journalists could suggest ideas or apply to fulfill existing ones, and publishers could jointly fund or purchase the completed stories, with donor funds reimbursed accordingly. Its operating model was based on the United States organization Spot.us, and it launched with an investigation into the suspension of a childhood immunization program in Australia over reports of febrile convulsions.