Hacks/Hackers London receives Google funding to help it grow
Google News Initiative has offered us funding to support the work we do–and make it better
If there’s one thing we know as journalists, it’s this: don’t bury the lede.
So, Hacks/Hackers London has an announcement to make: We’re happy to say that Google News Initiative has offered us funding to support the work we do, and make it better. We’ve said yes. The organisers took the decision, but Hacks/Hackers London is a community organisation and we want everyone to know why we’ve taken this step, and what we’re planning to do with the money.
For anyone who doesn’t know, Hacks/Hackers London is a group of journalists (“hacks”) and technologists (“hackers”) meeting regularly to explore the future of news. Increasingly over the past years there’s been overlap between the disciplines, and we all try to help make sense of the world. The London chapter has been running monthly events since 2010 and has a vibrant community. (Hope to see you at an event soon!)
The GNI funding is for one year. We’ve got three things we want to achieve:
1) Hire someone to help
We, as organisers, haven’t yet been able to expand our activities as far as we’d like, because the limited time we have gets taken up with meetup-related admin. We’ve also never truly been able to streamline our processes, or even do simple things like build a new website or properly curate our social media. The biggest expenditure from GNI’s grant is therefore going to hire a part time event producer and project coordinator who, we hope, will leap at the chance to work for a thriving community organisation, putting processes in place and making the meetups run more smoothly. They’ll also have the job of helping set up some of the revenue-driving activities we’ve thought of, which means that, in the long run, the organisation will be financially self-sustaining.
2) Keep the meetups going, and make them better
We spend time every month finding sponsors, negotiating, invoicing, and all the rest of the work of fundraising. GNI’s support will mean we don’t have to spend that time for the next 12 months, freeing us up to focus on finding great speakers, and thinking about what the meetups should cover, and what their format should be.
3) Expand our activities
We’ve long talked about what more Hacks/Hackers London could do. We want to push forward the projects that we’ve talked about, like advocating for better parental leave, linking potential mentors up with mentees, supporting new journalism and tech businesses, letting people know about jobs, and making the meetups accessible to people who can’t attend, for example through live-streaming. We talk about these things, but as volunteer organisers with jobs and other commitments, we never have time. The GNI funding will help us get some of those ideas off the ground.
This is a new phase for us. In the world of news and information, who pays for what is a big question. We’re well aware of that.
Historically we’ve had a little bit of financial help from Hacks/Hackers global, which pays for some of our web presence. Other than that, we’ve funded ourselves through monthly event sponsorship fees and some ticket sales — and of course, most of what we’ve done hasn’t needed money because everyone works for free: A host of organisers, volunteers, and supportive partners—including Twitter, our regular home—have made it possible thus far, and we’re forever grateful!
Google has supported us before when they funded our 2016 weekend conference for news entrepreneurs, Hacks/Hackers Connect. It has also occasionally supported our meetups by hosting us and providing refreshments. We’ve found the Google to be a great partner in supporting us to achieve our goals without any interference. We feel this is a good fit and, thankfully, so does Google.
Matt Cooke, head of partnerships and training at Google News Lab, said: “The Google News Initiative is our effort to strengthen high quality journalism and support innovation — that’s why we’re working with Hacks/Hackers London to build more opportunities for journalists and entrepreneurs across the city.”
We want Hacks/Hackers London to realise its potential. We think this is a good way, and GNI has been brilliant in taking an enabling approach and not placing any constraints on their funding.
Of course, we’re chiefly about facilitating the community and as part of that we want to ensure that everyone in it is as excited about this as we are. So if you’ve got ideas for how we make the most out of this funding, or questions about our chosen course, then please do get in touch.
Looking forward to the next stage!
