Knight News Challenge Round 3

Knight News Challenge

The Knight News Challenge accelerates media innovation by funding breakthrough ideas in news and information. Winners receive a share of $5 million in funding and support from Knight’s network of influential peers and advisors to help advance their ideas. The first round of 2013, which opens in February, will invite innovators from all disciplines to focus on tools for open government. In 2012, three challenge rounds, each focused on an emerging trend, drew more than 2,500 entries.

Challenge 1 - on NETWORKS: Winners were announced June 18.

Challenge 2 - on DATA: Winners were announced Sept. 20.

Challenge 3 – on MOBILE: Winners were announced Jan. 17.

Anyone, anywhere can apply for the challenge - whether for-profit start-ups or non-profit ventures. For more information on a variety of topics - from guidelines for for-profits, on intellectual property licensing, open source software and more - visit our FAQ.

Submit an Entry!

Evening Edition

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Evening Edition

1. What is your project? [1 sentence]

Evening Edition is a daily commuter-targetted synopsis of the day’s news, written and summarized by journalists, published every weekday at 5pm local time across several locations.

2. How will your project use mobile tools and approaches? [2 sentences]

Evening Edition isn’t an app, it’s a responsive website that is available to practically every mobile device with an internet connection. It’s designed to inform commuters quickly and easily.

3. Who will use it and why? [1 sentence]

Commuters on-the-go will access Evening Edition’s clear, concise posts on their phone or tablet in order to catch up on that day’s significant world happenings, without having to search various sources or sift through less urgent material.

4. Please list three ways they would learn about your project.

* Social networks and word of mouth. In the first 2 months of publishing, we’re averaging around 10,000 uniques a week and over 3,300 followers on Twitter.

* Traditional press coverage. The idea of Evening Edition really struck a chord in the traditional press with several flattering stories covering our efforts.

* Partnerships with other mobile-focused apps, such as Instapaper, Flipboard, Google Currents and Little Printer.

5. What connections have you made, or will you make, with others [communities, organizations or networks] about your project? [2 sentences]

We’ve discussed the idea with several local-to-San-Francisco media organizations, other mobile developers, and research institutions like the University of Missouri. As we expand from our current two locales to include more, we’ll need to hire additional editors.

6. What part of the project have you already built? [1-2 sentences, feel free to include links]

Evening Edition is up and running on a basic WordPress infrastructure with a responsive HTML front-end, and is designed and updated each weekday from London and San Francisco. We have created the first of many “topic pages” (evening-edition.com/syria and evening-edition.com/libor ), whose function it will be to present the scope of the more complex stories in a clear, comprehensible manner, and we’ve built a sponsorship to help offset the costs of hosting the site and paying editors.

7. What does success for your project look like? [1-2 sentences]

First and foremost, success will mean re-imagining the classic evening edition newspaper and expanding coverage beyond our two current locales to include not just more regions but other languages. As we are already reaching the limits of what we can accomplish with WordPress, we aim to build a custom application that will let us expand globally and include new platforms.

8. What resources do you need to succeed? [1-2 sentences]

We are asking for $200,000 to expand our editorial reach and build a world-class platform for delivering mobile news that people love. Half of this will allow us to quickly hire up to 10 editors to establish a more global presence while the other half will allow us to dedicate a developer to building the best possible application for delivering mobile news.

Additional details:
Please list who is on your team: Ann Rascouet-Paz, Leah Reich, Mike Monteiro, Jim Ray
Expected number of months to complete project: 3
Estimated Project Cost: $200,000
Name: Evening Edition
Twitter: @eveningedition
Email address: editor@evening-edition.com
Organization [if applicable]: Mule Design, Inc.
City: San Francisco
Country: United States
How did you learn about the contest? Dan Sinker recommended we apply.