On behalf of BeatBlogging.Org, we’d like to congratulate David Cohn for launching his new community-funded journalism project, Spot.Us.

David was the original editor of BeatBlogging.Org, and without him this project wouldn’t be where it is today. While we were sad to see David go, he moved on for a good reason. He received a generous grant from the Knight Foundation to tackle a new kind of journalism.

His pioneering project will help journalism find new ways to fund itself. Funding is the key issue facing journalism right now. Here is how the about page of Spot.Us describes the project.

Spot.Us is a nonprofit project of the Center for Media Change. We are an open source project, to pioneer “community funded reporting.” Through Spot.Us the public can commission journalists to do investigations on important and perhaps overlooked stories. All donations are tax deductible and if a news organization buys exclusive rights to the content, your donation will be reimbursed. Otherwise, all content is made available to all through a Creative Commons license. It’s a marketplace where independent reporters, community members and news organizations can come together and collaborate.

We wish David the best of luck, and we hope that Spot.Us is a tremendous success.