NewsTrust
Non-profit news network
title: "NewsTrust" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["american-news-websites", "american-journalism-organizations"] description: "Non-profit news network" topic_path: "geography/united-states" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NewsTrust" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Non-profit news network ::
NewsTrust was a non-profit news network that operated a web site where users were able to reference news stories, rate those stories according to quality of journalism, post reviews, and add stories they found worthwhile. It was operated and co-founded by former Wikimedia Foundation staff member, Fabrice Florin.
History
NewsTrust was first presented as an idea via MoveOn.org, in which MoveOn co-founder Wes Boyd expressed concern about "traditional media...losing" its way. He recruited Fabrice Florin, then CEO of cellular content provider Handtap Communications, to run the effort as part of NewsTrust Communications of Mill Valley, California. Users and editors of the NewsTrust website would rate news stories on a daily basis as to whether they were "news you can trust." The site was launched in a basic mode in May 2005.
In 2011, NewsTrust piloted a Baltimore-specific site focused on news local to the Baltimore area. NewsTrust launched in Baltimore due to its proximity to the Open Society Institute's Baltimore offices, and hired a former editor of the Baltimore Sun, Mary Hartney, as the editor. The Baltimore pilot ended six months after it was launched, although user-submitted content continued to be posted, and the NewsTrust mission shifted to a more "fact-checking service"-based model for the 2012 election.
From June 2012 until the website went offline, NewsTrust was owned and operated by The Poynter Institute.
Partnerships and funding
NewsTrust had many media partners, including Huffington Post, PolitiFact and the Washington Post and advisers including Howard Rheingold of Stanford University and Craig Newmark of Craigslist. NewsTrust also received financial donations from nonprofit foundations and private donors, including a $500,000 grant from the MacArthur Foundation in 2008 and Omidyar Network in 2010.
References
References
- (12 July 2011). "Next steps for NewsTrust Baltimore".
- (2008). "NewsTrust Communications - MacArthur Foundation grantees".
- (9 April 2005). "All the News You Can Trust". Bloomberg.
- (20 March 2005). "Update on News You Can Trust". Bloomberg Businessweek.
- ''Baltimore Business Journal'': [http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/print-edition/2011/01/21/newstrust-seeks-to-hold-a-mirror-up-to.html?page=all NewsTrust seeks to hold a mirror up to region’s media outlets] January 21, 2011.
- ''Columbia Journalism Review'': [https://www.cjr.org/the_news_frontier/newstrust_baltimore_an_experim.php NewsTrust Baltimore: An Experiment in Civility]. November 4, 2011.
- (21 September 2011). "Best of Baltimore 2011: NewsTrust". Baltimore City Paper.
- "NewsTrust is now part of The Poynter Institute".
- NewsTrust: [http://newstrust.net/partners Partners] {{Webarchive. link. (2015-05-03 . Accessed July 24, 2013.)
- (28 November 2007). "NewsTrust.net Expands with MacArthur Support". MacArthur Foundation.
- ''San Francisco Business Times'': [http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2010/03/01/daily36.html?page=all Omidyar Network awards $100K to NewsTrust to separate wheat from chaff]. March 2, 2010.
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