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Credder is a Silicon Valley startup founded in late 2018 by a group of frustrated news consumers with the ambitious goal of fixing media credibility. The company has developed a peer review service to measure credibility in every article, author, and outlet. The system is part of Credder’s larger mission to accelerate the news industry’s transition from a ‘click-based’ to a ‘credibility-based’ economy. WNIP caught up with co-founder Jared Fesler to find out more…
What business problem is your company addressing?
Over the last 15+ years, the relationship between news publishers and news consumers has broken. Heavy focus on click-based metrics and incentives has led to poor business models, record low trust in news, staff layoffs, newsroom closures and consolidation, and more. While most publishers understand these issues, the larger problem is the technology and resources required to undergo a structural and culture change from a click-based to credibility-based economy of news.
What is your core product addressing this problem?
Credder’s peer review service provides publishers with the technology and resources needed to address these issues at no cost. Publishers are able to collect, analyze, and take action based on how fellow journalists and everyday news consumers review their credibility. Publishers will have access to performance reports (a collection of all reviews in real-time and over time) that help determine when and where a reader’s trust is lost or gained. Publishers can then own the relationship with their readers by responding publicly to reviews, either to provide additional value or correct any flaws within their article, as well as begin to convert those readers into subscribers.
Can you give some examples of publishers successfully using your solution?
Credder has approximately 300 journalists and 900 users who’ve submitted over 3,200 reviews of articles. These reviews have generated a credibility rating for over 300 news publishers, as well as 163 individual journalists. Here are some early findings from the initial review data, which illustrate some of the large differences in opinion between the general public and professional journalists:
- The New York Times scored a 90% credibility rating from professional journalists, but only 63% among everyday users.
- CNN also has a higher score from journalists, 66%, and a lower score from users, 54%.
- Bloomberg has maintained a perfect 100% score from journalists, and an 80% score from users.
Along with our public launch on May 27th, 2019, Credder will be initiating pilot programs with select news publishers to generate publication specific case studies with this kind of data in mind.
Pricing?
Our service is free.
What are other people doing in the space and why?
Credder is the only bottom-up, peer review service of its kind. Other products and solutions include artificial intelligence, blockchain, top-down rating models, and fact-checking all of which have their own barriers to entering our market.
How you do view the future?
Credder’s product roadmap extends well beyond its core product offering. In the future, Credder will be introducing its “tipping” model to reduce the friction and technology required for news consumers and news publishers to create a financial exchange. Furthermore, Credder is interested in introducing Sponsored Articles for publishers (reach high-quality, targeted, new audiences) and Credder Awards for publishers (Best Investigative Reporting and Best Original Data, etc.)
All of these additional offerings will help publishers continue their transition from a click-based to a credibility-based economy of news.
Anything else we should know?
Investors in the six-figure angel round include Adeo Ressi (CEO of Founder Institute and TheFunded.com), Ellen Ehrenpreis (Partner at Orrick), Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP (leading Silicon Valley law firm), and Steve Bennet (Board of Sand Hill Angels, prolific angel investor in Ripple, etc.), among others. They join an active Advisory Board that includes Patrick Lee (former CEO of Rotten Tomatoes), Gabriel Snyder (former editor at The New Republic and The Atlantic) and Jeff Bonforte (former CEO of Xobni and former SVP at Yahoo!).
TechCrunch also recently likened us to creating “Rotten Tomatoes-style ratings for news“.
Thank you.
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Credder launched for the public on May 27th, 2019. WNIP readers can receive instant access to the beta at Credder.com by entering the following code on the homepage of Credder.com: TCNEWS
