An interesting attempt to address the problem of who will fund investigative reporting if the newspapers go bust. According to this Press Gazette story,

A major new journalism project that aims to be the "counterweight" to the perceived decline of investigative reporting has secured £2m in start-up funding, it was announced today.

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism will launch in London in the coming months and claims to be the first organisation of its kind in the UK dedicated to independent public interest journalism.

It will hire a managing editor, two or three reporters and will also fund freelance investigators and researchers. Its aim is to dig out – and then sell – the stories that many news organisations say they can no longer afford to cover in-house.

The not-for-profit bureau has been given the go-ahead as a result of the “extraordinary generosity”of a single donor – the Potter Foundation – which has made the £2m grant.

The foundation is run by David Potter, who made his fortune as the founder, chief executive and now chairman of hand-held computer manufacturer Psion, and his wife Elaine – a former Sunday Times journalist who now chairs the board of the Centre for Investigative Journalism.

I hope it works. Wonder what the business model is.