New York Times/ProPublica’s DocumentCloud makes newspaper debut

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DocumentCloud, a technology aimed at making data more accessible and helping journalists and news organisations deal with large volumes of documents, has made its debut on the Chicago Tribune’s website.

The Tribune has used DocumentCloud to publish the source documents of a news story and allow readers to browse by section and receive additional information around highlighted annotations.

The Tribune is one of 21 more than 70 news partners beta testing the technology, which is funded by a grant from the Knight News Challenge in 2009. The New York Times and ProPublica have allowed several staff to “moonlight” on the project, but is an independent organisation led by Eric Umansky, senior editor at ProPublica, Scott Klein, news applications editor at ProPublica, and Aron Pilhofer, the New York Times newsroom’s interactive technologies editor

Update: Despite this tweet from Aron Pilhofer, I am reliably informed by Amanda Hickman, programme director of DocumentCloud, in the comment below that the technology has also appeared alongside Newshour and Propublica stories too.

4 thoughts on “New York Times/ProPublica’s DocumentCloud makes newspaper debut”

  1. Pingback: DocumentCloud, ideal para periodistas de investigación | Clases de Periodismo

  2. Amanda Hickman

    Thanks for this, Laura. Though the Trib story is excellent, the document viewer has also appeared alongside Newshour and ProPublica stories as well.

    I wanted to offer a couple of additional corrections:

    First, our current crop of beta testing groups numbers close to seventy. We’ve come a long way since last September.

    Second, our co-founders also include Scott Klein, ProPublica’s Editor of News Applications.

    We’re not backed by the Times or ProPublica, except to the extent that they’re letting our co-founders moonlight on the project. Our financial backing comes entirely from a Knight News Challenge grant.

    Again, thanks for writing this up. We’re all looking forward to lots more great reporting!

    -Amanda Hickman
    Program Director, DocumentCloud

  3. Laura Oliver Post author

    Hi Amanda,

    Thanks for the clarifications – I’ll update the piece. Am aware of the financial support coming from the Knight News Challenge and did not mean that the NYTimes and Propublica were backing in this sense, though I can see how it’s unclear.

  4. Pingback: DocumentCloud, ideal para periodistas de investigación | Assistantgroup

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