Single-subject websites aim to fix a perceived flaw or deficit in the news cycle, providing coverage of underreported issues within their domains. Their publishers are generally moved by a perceived market failure, or an understanding that the mainstream media is not providing adequate coverage of a given topic. Such was the motivation to start InsideClimate News, according to its founder, David Sassoon: Media coverage of the climate issue has been an enormous failure. Look at the significant number of people in this country who do not understand it and are misinformed about it. A lot of it stems from the confusion in the media, and the awkward way the issues were being covered. The media was reporting on the science inaccurately. The scientific community was 90, 95 percent certain about the human contribution to climate change. You could see the progression of certainty through the IPCC reports, yet the media allowed political operatives to confuse the science.
Sassoon and other publishers in our study built their models based on subject matter mastery, with writers who have a focused specialty and often advanced knowledge of that topical domain. In some cases those writers were career journalists, in others they were subject matter specialists: North Korea News was founded by a former U.N. staffer; Deep-Sea News by an ocean researcher with a Ph.D.; Bleacher Report by a group of friends who wanted better news coverage of their favorite sports teams. In each case, a depth of knowledge served to boost their reporting skills and amplify their credibility within a given topic community. Their specialized knowledge also made it possible for them to harness new kinds of information, previously untapped by mainstream reporters. Our sole study participant from the field of data journalism, HealthMap collects data and open source information on the spread of infectious diseases and delivers reporting that can better inform public health professionals. Founded by John Brownstein, an epidemiologist, and Clark Freifeld, a computer scientist, the site can functionally capture public health signals from social media, harnessing information into data reports. “The idea was that there’s a lot of information being posted online via the courts or from mailing lists or blogs or Twitter or Facebook,” said Anna Tomasulo, a Program Coordinator for HealthMap, “that really gives signals of outbreaks far earlier than traditional public health reporting is able to do.” Nearly all of the publishers in our study used a strategy of active differentiation: their reporting consciously aimed to cover a niche that is left absent by the mainstream press. One example is StartUp Beat, a news outlet that covers “the world’s most innovative early-stage startups,” with a specific focus on entrepreneurs outside the Silicon Valley spotlight. Founder Brian Kovalesky differentiates his news coverage by deliberately seeking startups that are harder to find in the more mature digital technology press, specifically benchmarking against publications like Mashable, TechCrunch and BusinessInsider.
“What I noticed with these outlets were that they were still an insider’s game…entrepreneurs that aren’t plugged into the scene are ignored,” said Kovalesky. Similarly, Education News Network (Chalkbeat) deliberately focuses on covering schools in low-income communities, which, in the words of founder, Elizabeth Green, are “traditionally news deserts.” IA Reporter, which covers international arbitration, looks at “high-stakes international lawsuits that are just sort of falling in the cracks and are not covered by the legal and financial press,” according to its founder, Luke Peterson. The Gotham Gazette, a news site focused on public policy in New York, deliberately reduced the sub-topics it covers from 21 to eight, eliminating categories like education and arts policy. It was a strategic choice to scale back in areas where competing news outlets were growing.