Forum.tm has managed to collect twice as much money as expected.
The editor-in-chief of Croatian non-profit news portal Forum.tm Goran Borković announced the results of the first crowdfunding campaign to finance a media outlet in Croatia. In one month, Forum.tm raised from readers more than 10,000 dollars, which is as much as 5,000 dollars more than the initial goal, reports Novi List on December 22, 2016.
Borković announced that readers and other donors paid through the Indiegogo platform 9,045 dollars in the last month, of which 8,385 dollars will go to the website, while the rest will be used to pay various fees. He added that through direct donations to the bank account they received additional 1,766 dollars, for the total of 10,811 dollars.
“Our campaign has been monitored by more than 50,000 people, and 350 of them from 21 countries decided to financially support it. After Croatia, the country with most donations are the United States, and one donation even arrived all the way from Brazil”, said Borković, stressing that after a month they can conclude that they had succeeded.
“However, we do not measure our success with money. The real value is in the wide support that people have demonstrated for us, that our job is valuable and that our efforts make sense. After all, Forum.tm has not been created for the sake of making money. It was created because we freelance journalists wanted to have a place where we could write what we want, without orders for large media houses, without other people imposing their attitudes, without paying attention to interests of those in power. We started it for personal satisfaction, believing in free and independent journalism”, said Borković, adding that in three years of existence of the website there have been more than a hundred journalists who have left their mark.
In addition, he pointed out that they had received two important awards – one award of the Croatian Journalists' Association to Veronika Rešković, and “Božo Težak” award to Oleg Maštruko. “However, even awards are not important. What is important is that you have demonstrated with your support that it makes sense to continue. Financial support from the lottery funds, which former Culture Minister Hasanbegović abolished, allowed us not to have to be ‘clickable’ at any cost and publish ‘what people want to read’”, said Borković, pointing out that they persisted in publishing articles on topics that they believe are important, and which the mainstream media avoided for their own reasons.
“Such freedom is expensive, but is still better than ‘golden prison’. In times of people without food, people with frozen bank accounts, marginalized and in a precarious position, you have shown us that this makes sense and it is worth keep going. We are lucky to have this kind of readers'”, said Borković.
Forum.tm was created in 2013 when some of the reporters and editors of the defunct weekly Forum bought the rights to the domain. The crowdfunding campaign was launched on 21 November.
