The 25 winners of this year’s Knight News Challenge offer a taste of things to come in the news business. And it’s digital.
Sixteen journalists, bloggers and technology trend setters received a total of $5.5 million in the 2008 contest for their innovative ideas for gathering and distributing the news, particularly local news. The contest is sponsored by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
How does this apply to freelance writers? Several of this year’s winners are individuals who came up with projects they’re executing on their own – the classic definition of an independent writer. In other words, next year, this could be you.
This year’s winners include Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, for a project to create a technology to give users more information about the origins of digital content. Other winners will use the Web to raise public funds for investigative journalism; create software to turn computers into digital radio stations in India; and create a blog about interactive games students can use to track their personal demand on natural resources.
You can read a complete list of winners here.
Registration for next year’s prizes open September 1. Or you can visit this page to sign up for a emailing list for announcements.