Update: They have almost reached their goal so I am featuring this again to help.
[B’ Spokes: The Baltimore Brew feels like family to me, as they too are trying to make Baltimore a better place to live and they even acknowledge a connection with cyclists in the video on the linked article. They have been helpful in raising some important issues for us, so we should help them as well.]
Baltimore Brew Has Teamed Up With
To raise funds to bring you more of the accountability reporting, smart commentary and lively culture you’ve been missing in Baltimore – until the Brew came around!
About this project
Support
Baltimore Brew’s fresh and
fearless online reporting of the politics, culture and incredibly diverse
communities of the city that inspired H.L. Mencken, John Waters and the
creators of “The Wire.”
Baltimore Brew, as our loyal readers
know, is
a daily news website that gets behind development deals,
tracks
campaign cash,
features outsider artists and offers gazpacho recipes with equal
verve. We’ve become a municipal must-read.
Since former Washington Post
reporter Fern Shen launched the Brew a few years ago, the site has won plaudits
from publications ranging from the Baltimore City Paper, which named it the
best local on-line news site three years in a row, to the New York Times, which
calls it “a reason for cheer.”
Shen and former Baltimore Sun
investigative reporter Mark Reutter, working with a team of more than a dozen
other volunteers, have built a dedicated corps of 25,000 regular readers by:
-
Giving a voice to Baltimore’s
voiceless through coverage of the workers
at the Sparrows Point steel mill and residents of impoverished neighborhoods in
one of America’s poorest cities.
-
Holding
city and other officials accountable by reporting on deals with favored
contractors, tax breaks for big political contributors and regulatory
concessions to major industries.
-
Creating a
forum for city planners and visionaries to re-imagine Baltimore, helping ensure
that in the future it can provide the jobs and neighborhoods its residents need
– without resorting to tax gimmicks and giveaways.
Now we
want to expand the Brew’s coverage of the city’s spending practices and tax
breaks, to make sure Baltimore uses its scarce resources for programs that
benefit its people and not the politically-connected. And we want to make the Brew
sustainable by tapping new income streams and eventually paying salaries.
We plan to do this by:
-
Expanding
coverage to include online video and podcasts.
- Creating
more interactive features with readers.
- Publishing
special food, culture and lifestyle pages.
- Expanding
school and neighborhood coverage.
So far, we’ve kept the Brew
percolating with tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of donated time. With
a bare-bones budget, we’ve broken stories, shaped the civic conversation and
modeled a new kind of local media.
But we can’t expect the quality work we want without paying talented people for their time. So we
recently hired Meredith Mitchell as our business development manager, as part
of an effort to create a steady stream of income for the Brew.
Now we’re asking our great and
growing family of Brew readers, as well as supporters of quality community
journalism around the country, to help out as well – by dropping a generous
donation into our Kickstarter tip jar.
Read more and watch the video: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/fernshen/baltimore-brew-a-news-website-for-the-city
