NewsTrust 2009 Report

As 2010 gets underway, we'd like to thank our community for supporting NewsTrust in 2009 -- and give you a quick report on what we accomplished together last year.

Our social news network grew steadily in 2009, with a range of new services and partnerships that helped over 1.5 million people get better informed about important public issues.

Here are some highlights of what we've achieved together in 2009. For more info, check our full 2009 Report (PDF).

New Services
In 2009, we launched a new version of our site, which is now much easier to use and more appealing visually, with a simpler layout and a user interface improved greatly by features like the NewsTrust Toolbar. Some of the many new services we also released last year include: News Comparisons and Smart Feeds, as well as community tools like Facebook Connect, Email Notifications and Comments.

Together, we generated over 27,700 story reviews this year, covering a wide range of public issues from the economic crisis to health care reform and the war in Afghanistan. For an overview of the best journalism we found together, check our Best of 2009 page and our Top Sources of 2009.

New Partners
Last year, we partnered with many high-profile news organizations such as the Washington Post, Huffington Post, Link TV, PBS and PolitiFact, engaging their communities in regular news hunts for good journalism on important public issues. These collaborations have helped us promote our service and broaden our community -- and we're discussing more partnerships with other major new providers later this year.

In 2009, we also helped hundreds of students become more discerning news consumers, through our educational outreach in journalism schools at Santa-Clara University, Stanford, Stony Brook and the University of Nevada. We've developed a range of News Literacy and Teacher Guides to support these educational applications of our service in other schools across the nation.

Growing Community
In 2009, we served over 1.5 million visitors, nearly doubling our membership to 15,700 registered members and providing high-quality feeds of news and information to our community, through our website, daily emails, widgets, RSS, Facebook and Twitter. 

We also started monthly Member Awards last year -- and also saw an increase in 'trusted members,' with 383 reviewers demonstrating high levels of activity, expertise, ratings and transparency, earning them a member level of 3 or more.

New Business
We’re very grateful for the generous grants from the MacArthur Foundation and Ashoka, as well as private donations from our community, which have allowed us to keep growing in 2009 (see our full 2009 Report for more info). Many thanks as well to all NewsTrust members who donated during our year-end fundraising drive: you collectively contributed $5,980 in 2009 -- with another $2,675 received in January alone. We really appreciate your generosity and encourage you to keep giving when you can in 2010! (see below)

We also welcomed two new members on our board of directors: long-time advisers Howard Rheingold and David Cohn. Welcome aboard! Your commitment to our cause, combined with your expertise in journalism, new media and education will be invaluable on our board. We would also like to thank departing board member Terry Gamble, whose term expired this year, for her many generous contributions to NewsTrust over the years.

Due to the economic recession, this has been a tough year for fundraising, particularly in the field of journalism, which is facing an unprecedented crisis of its own. To sustain our operations in coming years, we are exploring a range of options such as raising funds from new and existing backers and developing strategic partnerships with compatible organizations. We will keep you posted on our progress towards these goals, and appreciate any support you can provide in the meantime.

Support our Work
NewsTrust isn't a commercial website. It's a nonprofit community service, which is created and funded by people like you. If you find our service useful, consider making a donation to NewsTrust. Your contribution will fund site improvements, new tools, community outreach, news literacy programs and much more.

If you haven't already, please donate today, so we can continue to promote good journalism and bring you quality news and information in 2010. Our continued growth depends on you.

Overall, 2009 has been a great year for NewsTrust. We've accomplished a lot together, and we've been amazed to see thousands of volunteers join our cause to promote good journalism. We're truly grateful for your inspiring support. It's pioneers like you that made this project possible -- and we thank you for your invaluable contributions.

We look forward to our next steps together in 2010!

-- Fabrice Florin and the NewsTrust Team