Скачать или смотреть New Ways of Funding Science Media: Massive Science/higgs / Nadja Oertelt, Beat Glogger

Massive Science (USA) and higgs (CH) are considered two of the most innovative science media start-ups that have embarked on new ways of funding.

In this #SciCon session moderated by freelance science journalist Eva Wolfangel, our guests Nadja Oertelt (Co-Founder & CEO, Massive Science) and Beat Glogger (Founder & Editor-in-Chief, higgs) share insights into their medium’s concepts and current financing models: What are their key success factors? What hurdles and practical problems did they have to overcome? How do they ensure qualitative, journalistic and ethical standards? What are their “lessons learned” and recommendations for other science media start-ups that want to break new ground in funding?

Launched in 2016, Massive Science is dedicated to helping scientists share stories about their work and lives, to become better science storytellers to make scientific research more understandable for general audiences. The content and media company in New York City wants to deliver “bleeding-edge scientific research and expertise”: trustworthy, entertaining and shareable science content authored by a community of over 2,000 knowledgeable scientists. https://massivesci.com publishes new stories about science, technology, and health throughout the week. The website is free to access and has digital ads. Massive charges a $10 membership fee for prospective writers who want to get training in science communication. They also have a subscription for $5 per month. Massive Science’s articles are republished in several American online news outlets, including ScienceAlert, Inverse, Salon and Quartz.

The online platform higgs is “the first independent magazine for knowledge” in Switzerland. Since January 2018, the team has been publishing knowledge for an extremely broad audience on the website, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter on a daily basis and is pursuing a “new media system”: higgs offers its content freely available to various media that can no longer afford high-quality science journalism. Thus, higgs aims to bring knowledge to as many areas and as many social classes as possible – especially those who are not a priori interested in science. The platform is mainly financed by the foundation Wissen für alle (knowledge-for-all.ch). There, freelance journalists – also from Germany – can apply for funding with their topic and research ideas and publish them on higgs. The foundation model, various funding sources and higgs as an intermediary are intended to ensure the independence of reporting.