KickTraq

Crowdfunding website Kickstarter is putting a new focus on journalism and linking with the Guardian to highlight projects with journalistic potential. (Read More)

The long-form science journalism site Matter was "acquired" by Medium last week. And you paid for it! (Read More)

A correspondent writes, via email: Since much of the seed capital of Matter was Kickstarter funded, isn’t it worth asking why the backers aren’t coming along, so to speak? I know the absolute answer, but the usual issues of founder sweat equity versus angel capital apply, it seems to me. It’s likely that the angel funding via Kickstarter is pretty substantial on a term sheet basis relative to other early stage investing. This is an easy one, but it’s also important. Kickstarter is not a store, but it’s definitely not a place to raise seed-round equity. (Read More)

Medium, the current company of Blogger and Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, has acquired Kickstarter-backed journalism startup Matter. (Read More)

With more than a dozen projects raising more than $1 million (some in less than a day), 2012 was a banner year for Kickstarter. Here are GigaOM's favorite campaigns from the worlds of connected devices, open-source technology and publishing. (Read More)

"Gut-punchingly good""Entering the arena with impressive style""It really raises the bar for everyone" These are just a few of the things that people have said about Do No Harm, the first story from MATTER, since we launched last week at... (Read More)

Hi All, We’ve been working flat out on MATTER since our Kickstarter campaign closed — poring over designs, reading pitches, building our website, thinking about libel protection and negotiating deals. But we know that there hasn’t been much to... (Read More)

Hi All, Part of the power of investigative journalism lies in its ability to answer questions. We all know the feeling of wondering whether something is credible. The something could be a government policy proposal, a warning of an environmental... (Read More)

Hi All, It’s been a hectic few weeks here at MATTER. We received a draft of one of our first stories and our web design team has been churning out prototypes. We’ve also been nailing down tedious but critical details of the system we’ll use to... (Read More)

We've been rather quiet lately. Please forgive the silence: building MATTER is consuming all the time we have.  We want to keep you up to date with the project as we head towards launch, so this week we launched a blog... (Read More)

Every step of this project has surprised us. First we reached our initial target in less than two days. Then we hit $75,000, and upgraded everybody's rewards. Then it wasn't long before we passed $100,000. The response from everyone out there... (Read More)

We just broke $100,000. After nine days. Nine days! The response from everyone out there has just been beyond our wildest dreams. We've doubled our target, and there are still an unbelievable 21 days to run on the project. We don't know to thank you... (Read More)

Wow! Just two days after reaching our target, we’ve now broken $75,000. The response has left us speechless: we’re completely amazed by how committed you all are and by how much faith you’ve shown in MATTER’s potential. As our way of saying... (Read More)

Thank you. Truly. We’ve reached our target far faster than we ever imagined possible. We’ve been totally blown away by the enthusiasm and interest in what we’re trying to do. It’s great to know so many people are as committed to independent,... (Read More)