Welcome Back to Homicide Watch DC; Meet our Newest Contributors
Dear Readers,
In mid-August I had to come to you with some bad news: that a combination of lack of funding and opportunities in other cities would force Homicide Watch D.C. to permanently shut down. Your response to that message was overwhelming, and the volume of support that Chris and I, as founders of Homicide Watch D.C., received was simply breathtaking. Your financial support quickly followed and in less than 30 days we raised more than $40,000 to not only keep Homicide Watch D.C. alive, but to transform it.
Today marks the official start of that transformation.
Sam Pearson, Penny Ray, and Jonah Newman join the Homicide Watch team as your editor and reporters. Each are uniquely qualified for the positions and were selected out of the dozens of internship applications that we received.
They've been at work on the site since Friday and have published a dozen story updates to Homicide Watch D.C. already.
Much happened in the ten weeks in which Homicide Watch D.C. did not publish. Twelve people lost their lives to violence in D.C. Some defendants were convicted while others saw their cases dismissed. A jury hung. Suspects were arrested in twelve cases. Jurors were selected for a trial that will likely close this week.
We are happy to be bringing you these stories once again and hope that you'll join us in a heartfelt welcome to Sam, Penny and Jonah. I know they are excited to be a part of the Homicide Watch D.C. community and have recorded short video introductions so that you might get to know them better, too.
Sincerely,
Laura Amico
Editor, Homicide Watch D.C.
P.S. We'll publish our thank-you post soon. If you donated and would like your name listed differently than it is on Kickstarter, please message us or email chris@homicidewatch.org.
A message from Laura
A message from Penny Ray
A message from Sam Pearson
A message from Jonah Newman
1,110
Backers
$47,450
pledged of $40,000 goal
0
seconds to go
Funding period
Aug 14, 2012 -
Sep 13, 2012
(30 days)
.medium.jpg?1344822261){kind=avatar}
- First created · 0 backed
- Has not connected Facebook
- Website: homicidewatch.org
Pledge $10 or more
297 backers
Support better crime coverage in Washington, DC. We'll list your name in a special thank you post on Homicide Watch DC.
Estimated delivery: Oct 2012Pledge $20 or more
229 backers
Get a copy of our 2011 Year in Review packaged as an ebook. This includes 23 stories about crime in Washington, DC, plus guest columns from DC's mayor and city council members.
Estimated delivery: Sep 2012Pledge $50 or more
202 backers
You’ll receive the 2012 Year in Review packaged as an ebook. This package will provide a look back at a year of crime in DC, including long-form narratives, investigative features and data visualizations. It will arrive in January 2013. We'll also list your name in a special thank you post.
Estimated delivery: Jan 2013Pledge $125 or more
27 backers
Your sponsorship message, with an image and link, runs in the Homicide Watch DC sidebar for one month. It is seen by thousands of DC residents, who will know that you’re helping to support a unique and cherished resource. Our users spend an average of six minutes on the site and viewed 330,000 pages last month.
Estimated delivery: Oct 2013Pledge $175 or more
7 backers
Get our data! At your request, we'll send you a spreadsheet containing up to one year of DC homicide data. This includes details about every victim and every suspect in our custom-built database. We record victims' and suspects' name, age, race, and gender. For victims, we also gather the homicide location, method (shooting, stabbing, etc) and place of death (at the scene or hospital). For suspects, we include arrest date and case status. This is data we use ourselves to produce stories like this: http://bit.ly/OSaSY0
Estimated delivery: Oct 2012Pledge $250 or more
11 backers Limited (39 of 50 left)
Invitation to a special happy hour with Homicide Watch team at ONA12 in San Francisco. Hang out with journalists trying to reinvent criminal justice reporting.
Estimated delivery: Sep 2012Pledge $350 or more
0 backers
Get our data! At your request, we'll send you a spreadsheet containing up to two years of DC homicide data. This includes details about every victim and every suspect in our custom-built database. We record victims' and suspects' name, age, race, and gender. For victims, we also gather the homicide location, method (shooting, stabbing, etc) and place of death (at the scene or hospital). For suspects, we include arrest date and case status. This is data we use ourselves to produce stories like this: http://bit.ly/OSaSY0
Estimated delivery: Oct 2012Pledge $500 or more
4 backers Limited (6 of 10 left)
Lunch with Homicide Watch founding editor and 2013 Nieman-Berkman fellow Laura Amico at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA.
Estimated delivery: Nov 2012Pledge $1,000 or more
1 backer Limited (29 of 30 left)
Year in Review Sponsor. You get a preview of our 2012 Year in Review, plus a skype chat with the reporters putting it together, plus a sponsorship message, link and image on the splash page. This sponsorship won’t expire. You’ll also receive the entire collection of Year in Review stories packaged as a ebook.
Estimated delivery: Dec 2012Pledge $5,000 or more
1 backer Limited (4 of 5 left)
The Homicide Watch team will guest teach a class or lecture for an audience of your choice.
Estimated delivery: Nov 2012
Comments
Creator Ben Donley on October 17, 2012
Thank you so much for all the work you're putting in.
Creator Christine on October 15, 2012
Really thrilled to see Homicide Watch alive and well! Congrats and welcome to the new interns!