On Friday, CrowdTangle, a social analytics company that Knight Foundation invested in via the Knight Enterprise Fund, announced its acquisition by Facebook. This is a momentous occasion for the CrowdTangle team (Congrats!), for investors such as Knight, and for Facebook. It’s also a chance to reflect on a company that created impact for journalists and […]
Article · November 16, 2016 by Benoit Wirz
Above: The six startups making up Matter‘s inaugural class. Tomorrow, Matter, the new startup accelerator for media ventures, is hosting its first-ever demo day in San Francisco. Six startups made up of the accelerator’s inaugural class will prime to demonstrate and promote the projects they have been developing over the last four months to a group […]
Article · June 12, 2013 by Benoit Wirz
If you read David Boeri’s web series on Whitey Bulger published by WBUR, Boston’s NPR station, (which, really, you should), two things stand out: the truth is often stranger than fiction and seamless use of images, audio and text really help tell one of the most interesting and macabre gangster stories of our time. […]
Article · June 6, 2013 by Benoit Wirz
Above: A scene from NewsFoo. Photo credit: Elise Hu. It was a real pleasure to attend my first NewsFoo conference this past weekend. Sponsored by O’Reilly Media, Knight Foundation and Google, NewsFoo gathered a cross section of folks (read: rock stars) in the digital news space to talk about an agenda created on the spot. One of the most interesting […]
Article · December 5, 2012 by Benoit Wirz
Photo Credit: Flickr user Thomas Hawk Tomorrow night at the Lightbox in Wynwood, 60+ Miami entrepreneurs will be pitching their startups to a panel of Silicon Valley investors capable of helping kickstart their ideas. These companies have been part of the NewMe Pop-Up accelerator, which has provided local Miami startups with advice and coaching over the past […]
Article · November 13, 2012 by Benoit Wirz
Photo Credit: Flickr user Dean Terry Imagine it’s Saturday afternoon in the summer and you’ve just found a lawn chair, a good book and a spot on the front porch to get situated. But the one thing you don’t want to do once you sit down is get up again, so you’ll need a ready […]
Article · July 10, 2012 by Benoit Wirz
Photo Credit: Flickr user slidingsideways Here’s a news flash: Hockey fans like donuts. Dunkin Donuts, to be more precise. And to be even more specific, a significant portion of the 2.5 million fans who visit the Boston Bruins website every month also like Dunkin Donuts. Earth shattering, I know. Here’s the thing: What if I were […]
Article · May 29, 2012 by Benoit Wirz
Yesterday, Knight Foundation released a new report, offering a detailed look at some of the country’s leading online local nonprofit news ventures. Today, the foundation shares what the nationally focused news nonprofit, ProPublica, is learning on its path to sustainability. Ben Wirz, director/business consulting at Knight Foundation: Foundation funding will never be able to plug […]
Article · October 19, 2011 by Benoit Wirz
Benoit Wirz, Director of Business Consulting at Knight Foundation Recently, a colleague circulated a request for good fact-and-research-based sources examining the business model of traditional newspapers in comparison to 21st century digital alternatives. With the pace of change in media being as formidable as it is, there is no single source for this kind of […]
Article · April 11, 2011 by Benoit Wirz