Founder plans non-hierarchical newsroom and wants to build First Look Media on collaborationWith $250m in funding from eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and some high profile journalist hires, First Look Media has set itself the lofty task of reinventing journalism for the digital age, starting with the traditional hierarchy of newsrooms.Glenn Greenwald, the former Guardian journalist who broke a string of stories about widespread electronic surveillance by the National Security Agency based on files leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden, was first on board the Omidyar-backed venture and launched the new company's first "digital magazine", the Intercept, on 10 February. The online title will initially concentrate on the NSA, with the longer-term goal of producing "aggressive and independent adversarial journalism" on issues ranging from civil liberties to media.Greenwald was joined last month by Rolling Stone contributing editor Matt Taibbi, who has built a formidable reputation for his reporting on the financial crisis. Taibbi will launch First Look's second online title later this year, focused on the ongoing economic crisis and the political machinery that surrounds it. Greenwald, co-editor of the Intercept alongside documentary maker Laura Poitras, who previously worked with him on the NSA leaks, and Jeremy Scahill, formerly of the Nation, says the opportunity to build a news organisation from the ground up will allow him to put his theories on media into practice.Among... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2014-03-02 00:00:00 UTC ]