Four diverse news ideas in the US – a mobile platform for hyperlocal news sites, a tech news site, a news magazine covering women’s basketball, and a rollout of a site for visualising economic data – have each won a $12,000 award to launch the projects in the coming year.
According to a media release from J-Lab, the award winners were selected from 378 proposals as part of the McCormick New Media Women Entrepreneurs, an initiative to address opportunity and innovation, recruitment and retention for women in journalism by highlighting their entrepreneurial abilities.
The winners are:
Mobile news platform for hyperlocal news – A proposal by Bo Hee Kim, a UC Berkeley graduate student to build a more user and geo-friendly mobile news site for the journalism school’s three hyperlocal sites that may ultimately be used by other local sites.
SiliconHillsNews.com – A nonprofit startup for technology and biotechnology news in the Austin-San Antonio region, focusing on entrepreneurs, companies and creative people to be launched by TechChi blogger and journalist Laura Lorek.
Visualizing Economics – To expand on VisualizingEconomics.com and create illustrated guides that contain infographic explainers using economic data that helps journalists, teachers, students, financial bloggers and citizens understand economic numbers and policy.
Inside Women’s Basketball – A proposal by Atlanta documentarian and photographer Kelly Kline to build out InsideWomensBasketball.com as the centralised news, entertainment and social networking site for some 12 million fans and participants of women’s basketball.
Runners-up included:
Carolina Public Press, an in-depth news site for western North Carolina.
Speak and listen mobile news reader, a spoken dialogue interface on mobile devices for listening to online news.
Rockies Rising, a site to connect and inform investors and entrepreneurs in the Rocky Mountain corridor.
I Am Young Nation, an online publication to attract and retain young urban doers.
The New Media Diversity Wire, an initiative to place women’s voices and ideas in high-profile online outlets, amplified by social media.
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