PolitiFact’s Membership Program Gets Started, Fast

Donald Trump’s recent election has put more attention than ever on the organizations dedicated to reporting the news and fact-checking the claims of public figures.

Sometimes, that means Meryl Streep giving a shout-out  (opens in a new tab) to the Committee to Protect Journalists; other times, it means a spontaneous campaign  (opens in a new tab) to encourage people to pay money for the newspapers they read.

In the case of PolitiFact, the fact-checking offshoot of the Tampa Bay Times, it means starting a membership program at just the right time. Last month, the Pulitzer Prize-winning website announced its first-ever membership program  (opens in a new tab), complete with different tiers of perks for supporters and superfans alike.

The organization, which announced the “Truth Squad” endeavor  (opens in a new tab) during the week of the election, teamed with a group of nonprofit news organizations to come up with the membership strategy, an endeavor called the News Revenue Hub  (opens in a new tab).

“We hope reader contributions will help us as we work to find a financially sustainable model for public accountability journalism in the 21st century,” PolitiFact Editor Angie Drobnic Holan and Executive Director Aaron Sharockman wrote last month  (opens in a new tab).

Early Success

How’s it going? Well, so far, the website seems to be benefiting from the overall push for more fact-checking.

According to Poynter (the nonprofit that owns the Tampa Bay Times), the website has raised $105,000  (opens in a new tab) in just 20 days—with 611 people donating at least $50 in annual support for the website.

In comments to Poynter’s Alexios Mantzarlis, Sharockman noted that the organization, which isn’t a nonprofit, is benefiting from the current news climate. (The organization raised $3,000 alone during Sean Spicer’s first White House press conference.) Even so, the results could potentially prove lasting for an endeavor that requires a constant stream of revenue to keep fact-checking a never-ending stream of news stories.

“What I’m really excited about is that we’ll have the ability to have a steady way for us to fund our work in a way that ensures we remain independent, nonpartisan and objective,” Sharockman said to the website. “And also in a way that won’t yo-yo with the elections.”

(PolitiFact screenshot)