A group of freelance journalists is launching a new subscription-based, crowd-funded investigations unit to make up for a sharp fall in investigative reporting by traditional news media in Scotland.



Called the Ferret, the web-based project said it plans to draw on successful investigative journalism collectives, including De Correspondent in the Netherlands and the Belfast-based outfit The Detail, to produce independent investigations and also stories it can sell on to mainstream outlets such as the Scottish and national press, Channel 4 News or the BBC.

It launches formally on Tuesday with a crowd-funding appeal on the Indiegogo website to raise £3,800 to fund its first investigation into Scotland’s fracking industry. That subject was chosen over NHS cuts and treatment of asylum seekers after the Ferret ran a public ballot last month.

The unit is being led by three established investigative reporters, the environment and freedom of information specialist Rob Edwards; Peter Geoghegan, a social affairs and politics specialist, and Billy Briggs, a home affairs and defence journalist. Two others, Rachel Hamada, a social justice specialist, and designer Jo Skinner complete the current team.

The push to set up the unit follows a steady and substantial decline in investigative reporting by Scotland’s established media, with a sharp cut in staffing, pagination and funding on many daily papers. There has been a parallel upsurge in alternative online commentary and reporting, dominated by pro-independence sites such as Bella Caledonia or the nationalist Newsnet.

Edwards, a Guardian and Channel 4 News contributor and part-time environment correspondent for the Sunday Herald, said its goal was to build up a group of 2,000 subscribers willing to provide core funding by paying £3 a month, supplemented by issue by issue crowdfunding and the group’s earnings from selling on stories.

Based around digitally-led, multimedia reporting, the Ferret is also considering a paywall system, offering non-subscribers access to a limited number of free stories before charging for greater and more in-depth access.

A similar model is used by De Correspondent; its 34,000 subscribers pay €60 (£42.50) a year, after it launched a remarkable crowd-funding exercise when 15,000 donors gave €1m in eight days to raise its start-up capital. The Detail in Belfast, which sells its stories to media such as Irish broadcaster RTE, won core funding of £157,000 from the Atlantic Philanthropies trust in 2013.

Edwards said subscribers would get exclusive access to extra content on its ad-free website once stories were published, including further reporting, longer articles, additional video footage and background data. The Ferret will also focus on data journalism – something rarely used by Scottish media, and producing interactive graphics and films.

“Investigative journalism is not only in decline, but it comes at a cost. What we want to find out is whether people are willing to pay for that. Obviously we’re hopeful the answer is yes,” Edwards explained. “It is clearly not the case that investigative journalism is dead; it’s just faltering.

“The thing that really motivates me is I really worry about the journalists of the future. This is about trying to find a sustainable model to fund journalism in the digital age, not beholden to any corporation.”

Geoghegan adds: “What we want to do is tell stories differently, to use the internet in more innovative and novel ways in Scotland.” The Ferret defines itself as pursuing public-interest journalism, he said.