There’s been a lot of hype in journalism circles lately about the launch of spot.us, and when I checked just now, two of the stories have been fully funded. But this post is about another journalism-related venture’s crowdfunding effort, which I am very happy to report has been a success.

If you are a newspaper designer, then chances are you have a portfolio on newspagedesigner.com. It has been a great resource for newspaper designers to see what their peers are doing and show off their work for employers. Just from my own experience, I’ve gotten numerous potential job interest inquiries from newspaper editors who saw my stuff on that site. I hadn’t kept up with the site much since leaving newspapers, so I’m a bit late on this news:

Since its creation, the site has been hosted and supported by the Lewiston (Maine) Sun-Journal. A little while back, the Sun-Journal pulled its support for the site, for which I don’t think you can really blame them since 1). maintaining a site of that volume was a generous act to begin with, and 2). given the economic conditions, this cost-cutting measure is not exactly a surprise.

To save newspagedesigner.com, the Society of News Design launched a fundraising campaign on thepoint.com. Its goal was to raise $2,500 by Dec. 15. From the pledge list, it looks like the donations started rolling in on Nov. 15, and the campaign hit its goal that same day. As of right now, $3,430 have been pledged. It was truly a mass effort, as the biggest single pledge I saw was $250, and there were plenty of donations under $100. In this case, I think the keys to the success of the campaign were that

1. It was offering a tangible product with well-defined deliverables for the donors before they make the pledge. The donors knew exactly what they were getting.
2. It was targeting a very specific audience — newspaper designers.
3. It was targeting a community that already was tight-knit and well-connected and therefore can spread the word around quickly.

As explained here, the extra money will go toward more server space (the $2,500 was based on what they thought the minimum server specs they would need) and maintenance costs. So go make a pledge today. Hey, if Robert Knilands, a name infamous in the newspaper design realm, could be convinced to donate (for which I give him much credit), then you should too.

Of course, you can also make the observation that the people most willing to pay for a journalism product is … journalists. Hmm …