Beacon Reader, founded in 2013 to fund independent journalism, said it is no longer offering services to journalists and has cancelled all subscriptions.
Adrian Sanders, co-founder of the site, based in Oakland, Calif., thanked supporters and said, “We expect and hope others will learn from and build on our efforts.”
Sanders said 25,000 backers helped Beacon to pay out $3 million “to some of the best journalists across the globe…Beacon grew to become a home for hundreds of journalists and publications.”
Topics covered included initiatives like Climate Confidential, coverage of events in Yemen and Kurdistan, and efforts to influence policy on net neutrality, mass incarceration, and immigration.
Beacon had a local reporter on the scene during the Ferguson protests when “national media was slow to respond,” said Sanders.
Wikipedia says other models of funding journalism, such as Huffington Post and The Texas Tribune, “have been more successful in raising funds.”
Underscore Media, a new creator-led media venture dedicated to New York sports, is built around three established New York sports personalities, Sal Licata, Jimmy Traina, and John Jastremski.
McClatchy, which owns 29 daily papers across 14 states (including The Miami Herald, Sacramento Bee and Kansas City Star), launches a wave of layoffs that extends to at least 13 of those papers... The Toledo Blade, which was founded in 1835, is set to shut down on Dec. 31, unless owner Block Communications manages to find a buyer for it... A bill awaiting approval by California governor Gavin Newsom would give local newsrooms a boost. 
Fox News Media issued a pretty sparse release to announce the departure of one of its stars. “Effective today, Maria Bartiromo is no longer with FOX News Media,” it reads.
Brunswick Group partner John Simons has joined CNN as senior director of business & media. He held top jobs at Time and the Wall Street Journal.
WNET, the nation’s largest public media company, names Edward O’Keefe its next president and CEO, effective September 21. O’Keefe succeeds Neal Shapiro, who becomes president emeritus and will retire at the end of the year... The Stealth Bot Prohibition Act, which would empower news publishers and other content providers to defend themselves by mandating transparency for all bots crawling their sites, in introduced in the House by Rep. Laurel Lee (R-FL) and Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC)... Google gets socked by European Union regulators with a $1 billion fine for using the platform’s dominance as a search engine to illegally undercut competition.
