Can crowdsourced journalism survive the pressure of professional standards and the threat of bias?
In short: In 2017, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales launched WikiTribune, an ambitious for-profit news platform designed to combat misinformation. By blending professional reporting with volunteer fact-checking, the site aimed to reinvent journalism. Yet, within two years, the project faced significant operational hurdles, ultimately pivoting away from its original news-gathering mission entirely.
Announced in April 2017, WikiTribune was born from Jimmy Wales's frustration with the rise of 'alternative facts' in political discourse. The model was distinct: a for-profit entity funded by donors rather than advertisers, intended to eliminate commercial pressures. Wales recruited a team of ten professional journalists, supported by a community of volunteers who would proofread, source, and fact-check articles. The project secured over £137,000 in initial crowdfunding and additional backing from donors like Google and Craig Newmark’s News Integrity Initiative.
Despite the high-minded goals, the platform struggled to gain traction. Critics, including academics and media experts, questioned the feasibility of the hybrid model. Some argued that a staff of ten was insufficient for global coverage, while others warned that relying on unpaid volunteers invited the same risks of error and bias found on Wikipedia. These concerns were exacerbated when the site’s first teaser article in September 2017 drew sharp criticism for factual inaccuracies and perceived political bias, leading some early supporters to cancel their donations.
By April 2018, the company reported losses exceeding £110,000. Traffic remained low, and the intended synergy between staff and the community failed to materialize. In October 2018, the site laid off its professional editorial team, allowing volunteers to publish content without expert oversight. Wales later admitted that the structure did not allow the community to flourish. By November 2019, the WikiTribune website was redirected to WT.Social, a social networking project, marking the end of its experiment in collaborative news.
The failure of WikiTribune highlights the persistent tension between open-source participation and professional journalism. While researchers like Andrew Lih initially hoped the 'operational command structure' would succeed where volunteer-only projects like Wikinews had failed, the reality proved more complex. Legal uncertainties regarding defamation and the difficulty of managing volunteer input ultimately rendered the ambitious project unsustainable, leaving it as a cautionary tale for those seeking to disrupt traditional media models.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: WikiTribune
- Also: Wikidata — WikiTribune · CC0
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