By Kevin McCauley
ProPublica, the non-profit investigative reporting outfit, is now accepting advertising on its website, according to an announcement from its general manager Richard Tofel.
Ads are coming for its daily email, which goes to 40,000 people, and iPad application.
Tofel says advertising will generate revenues to promote “sustainability.” The Sandler Foundation is the biggest of ProPublica’s more than 1,300 donors. It kicked in 3.8M last year or 38 percent of total cash raised. Tofel eyes a $5M budget in 2011..
Other financial backers include Carnegie Corp., Ford Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, George Soros’ Open Society Foundations and Pew Charitable Trusts.
Cleary Gottlieb provides pro bono legal commercial work, while Davis Wright Tremaine is press counsel.
ProPublica is now part of the Public Media Interactive Network and is repped for web sales by National Public Media, which Tofel calls an offshoot of NPR and PBS.
Tofel’s group will reject advertising that it knows or believes is “misleading, inaccurate, fraudulent or illegal, or that fails to comply, in ProPublica’s sole discretion, with its standards of decency, taste or dignity.”
Advertising that blurs the separation between news and ad content in an effort to confuse readers also will be rejected.
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